[Dixielandjazz] Obit: Hedges, 77, won fans as jazz artist

[BillSargentDrums at aol.com]

Charles A. Hedges
Hedges, 77, won fans as jazz artist
Clarinetist  loved to play
By Amy Rabideau Silvers of the Journal Sentinel 
Posted:  June 25, 2010 3:55 a.m. -  
http://www.jsonline.com/news/obituaries/97141424.html


Chuck Hedges didn’t like to toot his own horn, so to speak. Instead he let  
his clarinet do the talking for him.

He was considered one of the  best jazz clarinetists ever, a world-class 
reed man who performed both here and  abroad.

“Clarinet fans who recall the best work from Artie Shaw,  Benny Goodman and 
other giants put Hedges in that league,” wrote Mike Drew,  former reporter 
for The Milwaukee Journal and a jazz fan, in  1990.

Hedges kept playing while being treated for colorectal cancer  in 2001. 
Then, in 2005, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. After a lengthy  
hospital stay, he was right back on stage.

“Chuck’s trying to prove  something to himself,” said drummer Andy LoDuca.

What’s that, he  was asked.

“If he can still play, he’s still alive,” LoDuca  said.

Hedges last played a regular gig at The Grove Restaurant in  Elm Grove, 
finally stepping off stage in February.

Charles A.  Hedges died Thursday in hospice care at home in Waukesha. He 
was  77.

“Success for a jazz musician is defined as survival,” he once  said. “Jazz 
musicians do not get rich and famous.”

Over the years,  Hedges recorded dozens of albums with his own bands and 
performed on literally  hundreds of other recordings. Bands included the Chuck 
Hedges Swingtet, a  fixture for 30 years at Andy’s in the Chicago Loop area.

“He always  took the toughest night — Monday — because he could fill the 
house,” said friend  Jerry Barnes. “He filled every house he ever played.”

He played at  jazz festivals from Wisconsin to Europe. In the Milwaukee 
area, he played a  weekly gig at the Red Mill West for nine years. He began The 
Milwaukee  Connection, “because everyone thought of him as a Chicago player,
” Barnes  said.

Earlier, Hedges and fellow musicians re-created the Benny  Goodman sextet 
sound as the New Chicago Swingtet. Above it all, Hedges’ clarinet  soared “
through pure, endless lines without an apparent need for oxygen,” wrote  Drew.

Hedges grew up in Chicago, “interested in jazz from the  start.” The 
career part came later.

“I got started late,” he said.  “I became serious about music when I was 
20 years old.”

Early  influencesHe studied with Clark Brody, a Chicago Symphony 
clarinetist in the  1950s. He played for hours and hours a day. When he didn’t have 
bus fare, he  walked for hours, too, for the chance to sit in with the likes 
of Georg Brunis,  Danny Alvin and Muggsy Spanier.

“I was fortunate to get in on the  tail end of the jazz age,” he said.

His first big job was with  Brunis’ old New Orleans band.

“I never went to bed before seven  a.m. and never woke up before two,” he 
said.

In 1960, he came to  the Milwaukee area to play with the trumpeter Dick 
Ruedebusch and his band,  performing on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and recording 
with that  band.

By 28, married with kids, Hedges decided that he needed to  change his 
life. He learned wind-instrument repair for a day job. He played for  weddings — 
“which I don’t consider playing” — and occasional festival dates for  the 
next decade.

Gradually, he got back into regular  playing.

“I still feel as if I’m playing musical catch-up now, but  I’m enjoying it,
” he said in 1982.

Critics couldn’t say enough  about Hedges and his way with the clarinet. 
Neither could his fellow  musicians.

At the 1982 Kool Jazz Festival, Hedges’ solo work drew a  standing ovation 
from the crowd and admiring approval from cornet man William  “Wild Bill” 
Davison.

“I gotta tell you,” Davison declared, “this is  my favorite clarinet 
player of all time.”

Jazz disc jockey Ron  Cuzner described Hedges as “a cherry in the middle of 
a pear tree” — a musician  who has chosen to play an instrument and style 
of jazz from the early  era.

His era was swing.

“When Chuck Hedges plays his  tuning note, it swings,” said Joe Aaron, 90, 
another clarinet player. “He was  that good.”

“I love to play melodies, just to play it straight and  make it sing,” 
Hedges said. “This is something that is missing in modern  jazz.”

Hedges could play the same song every night and make it  something 
different.

“If it’s not, then it’s not improvisation,” he  said. “It’s a risk. Of 
course, it does not always work, but when it does, it’s  great.”

Survivors include Carole Hedges, his wife of 19 years;  daughters Melissa, 
Theresa Schmechel and Janine; sons Matthew and James; stepson  John 
Augustus; and grandchildren.

A memorial party — “He wanted the  biggest party with lots of music,” said 
his wife — is being planned for  July.