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OBITUARY 

James Eugene McHargue  LOS ANGELES (AP) - James Eugene "Rosy" McHargue, a prolific jazz   clarinetist, saxophonist and singer died Monday. He was 97.   The musician played with the bands of Benny Goodman and Kay Kyser. He   recently performed for his 95th birthday at an event sponsored by the New   Orleans Jazz Club of Southern California. President Clinton, who also plays   the saxophone, sent McHargue a letter for the occasion.   He got his musical career start playing with bands in Chicago. His first   recording, ``Wow Blues,'' was made in 1922. He went on replace Benny Goodman   in the Seattle Harmony Kings and later toured with the Ted Weems band from   1935 to 1942.         Rosy McHargue, Oldest Jazz Musician, Dies   Dixieland clarinetist and singer Rosy McHargue died this week in Los Angeles at the age of 97.    Before his death on Monday (June 7th), McHargue was one of the oldest jazz musicians alive, although he was not as well known as the stars he accompanied. He began his career in Chicago jazz clubs, then relocated to Los Angeles by the 1940s. There he worked with Benny Goodman, Ted Weems, Kay Kaiser and Red Nichols. Upholding the traditions of Dixieland and 1920s jazz, McHargue developed into a singer and started his own band in the 1950s. In recent years he worked to preserve the heritage of the jazz, transcribing old jazz recordings and corresponding with those who chronicled the earliest days of jazz. He continued to perform in the 1990s and his own 90s, releasing a 1992 album Oh How He Can Sing! and playing jazz festivals up to 1997.  ~AMG

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

Rosy McHargue         Although he is somewhat obscure, Rosy McHargue (who turned 95 in 1997) is the third oldest  active jazz musician in history, behind Eubie Blake (who made it to 100) and Benny Waters (just a  month older than McHargue and still active as of this writing). Always associated with Dixieland and  1920s jazz, Rosy McHargue in his later years developed into a singer with an encyclopediac  knowledge of lyrics (including verses and alternate choruses) from many forgotten songs from the 1920s and before. At the age of 15 in 1917, he worked at his first professional engagement (with the  Novelty Syncopators) and made his recording debut in 1922 playing "Wow Wow Blues" with Roy Schoenbeck's Orchestra. Other early recordings included dates with the Seattle Harmony Kings  (1925), Frankie Trumbauer (1931), Ted Weems (1934) and Jimmy McPartland (1936). McHargue  worked with the Wolverines in late 1925 after Bix Beiderbecke had departed, spent a year with the Seattle Harmony Kings and played with Ted Weems from 1934-42.  After moving to Los Angeles, he worked briefly with Eddie Miller and Benny Goodman before having longer stints with Kay Kyser (1943-46) and Red Nichols (1947-51). McHargue, who took the purposely cornball clarinet  solo on Pee Wee Hunt's unlikely hit version of "Twelfth Street Rag, " played and recorded with Pete Dailey, and has been active in Los Angeles's Dixieland scene up until the present time, still appearing  at jazz festivals in 1997. He recorded as a leader for Jump (1947 and 1952), Fairmont, Audiophile,  Protone (1957) and, much more recently, Stomp Off (1992). -- Scott Yanow, All-Music Guide

 

 LINKS

All Music Guide  Stomp Off Records Rosy McHargue Homepage