• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Percy C. Hughes Narrator Margaret A. Robertson Interviewer September 25, 1989 Minneapolis, Minnesota Percy C. Hughes - PCH Margaret A. Robertson - MAR MAR: Mr. Hughes, could you begin by telling me when and where you were born. PCH: I was born in St. Paul in 1922. I lived in St. Paul one year. All of my schooling and upbringing was in Minneapolis. MAR: What part of Minneapolis? Society PCH: South Minneapolis, my schools were Warrington Grade School, Bryant Junior High School and Central Senior High School. And I was going on two years at the University of Minnesota and then Uncle Sam grabbed me. MAR: What year was that? PCH: The first part of 1943. I went into the army,Historical and I was fortunate, I guess I’d say—I’m black, so I’m very fortunate. I was assigned to a ground force band because of my musical ability. So, it was a learning process for me. When I really became aware of real good jazz, I was surrounded in this band with guys off of Count Basie’s band, Duke Ellington’s band. I was stationed the first part of my army time at Fort Riley, so I got into Kansas City as often as possible, and that’s wherethe I heard Twin all of Citiesthese Jazz Greats.Oral That’s History when it startedProject rubbing off on me. Minnesota MAR: You mentioned that you had a musical background before you went into the army. How did that come about? Jazz in PCH: Well, I started playing clarinet at age eleven in the school system. And I worked and saved money and took private lessons. I went through high school in the band and the orchestra. I continued my instruments because then the neighborhood guys formed a little band. The clarinet players tried to perform like an Artie Shaw or a Benny Goodman through those years. And I stayed on the horn, playing the clarinet and by then, I think, my first saxophone was a C- Melody saxophone, and I was off and running, so to speak. MAR: Was your family interested in music? 1 PCH: Yes, my mother was a pianist, and my brother studied the trumpet. Whenever company came to the house it would be, “get your horns out, boys!” and we’d have to perform for the company. I learned La Golandrina well. That was one of her songs for us. MAR: So, tell me more about you and the army band. What kind of things would you play for, where did you go? PCH: Well all right, we played a lot of band rallies and concerts. I can remember playing concerts all over Kansas, Missouri, and Kentucky, as we moved. And we played for the officers’ dances, both commissioned officers and the sergeants and non-commissioned officers’ dances. We were busy. We played a lot of the field ceremonies for them. I would imagine the average army musician was a good rifleman because it seems like we were always going to the rifle range. They really didn’t have a lot to do with us, other than the ceremonies and what not. I was kind of lucky, I was also assigned to Special Services because as a kid I was a very good baseball player, and so I was on the regimental baseball team also. MAR: So the band was attached to the unit that you were in? PCH: Right, right. We were a regimental band that was the title. Society MAR: Was this a segregated band too? PCH: Yes, it was. Everything was segregated back in those years. I can remember being in Louisiana and each post or fort had two bands and that was the name of the game back in those years. But, we seemed to always get together for jam sessions. Quiet, but it wasn’t known all over the base. So I got to meet and make some neat friends. In my background, it was hard for me because I grew up not knowing about segregationHistorical or racism. My neighborhood was just a neighborhood. There wasn’t the black and white thing, Anglo, Negro, whatever it was—just a bunch of young people. You either liked each other or you didn’t, and it wasn’t because of the color of your skin. And thanks to my mom and dad, our home was always a popular place. Dad had a basketball hoop on the tree for us, and guys would come over. We had a ping-pong table, and we were quite the place.the [Interruption]Twin Cities Oral History Project MAR: You were talking aboutMinnesota home life. PCH: Oh, home life, right. And then to be inducted into the service. I remember going right to Fort Riley,Jazz Kansas. in And going to movies, I’d hear someone yell, “Hi Perc.” We’d be in the theatre, and that was segregated. And there would be someone I’d grown up with and played ball with, ping-pong with, gone to school with, and yet we were separated. It was hard for me not to become bitter. But I didn’t, thanks to my home training, I would say. I grew up being taught brotherly love, but at the same time my dad put a boxing bag in the basement and taught us how to box. Maybe that helped some, I don’t know. But that was hard to take, very hard to take. So, like in that article in the Minnesota Monthly, I was determined if I ever had the opportunity, which I’ve had all of these years, of maybe preaching brotherly love, and I use my bandstand for that. I was a little bitter though back in the ‘40s when I couldn’t buddy-buddy with the guys I grew up with. Pretty hard. 2 MAR: How long were you in the service then? PCH: Three years. I went in in 1943 and was discharged in ‘46. MAR: And you came right back to Minneapolis. PCH: Right. I swore I’d never leave town, never. And actually, my band was so popular and in demand, I had a chance through Music Corporation of America to tour with Peggy Lee and after—bless him—Charlie Richter told me what the itinerary was to be, I lied my way out of that, because I had sworn I’d never go South again, and the tour was going to head South. And no way. It’s different now, that I know, I guess. I’ve been South, I’ve been to a Super Bowl in New Orleans, and my wife and I plan to go with another couple to Florida for spring training, baseball training. I’ll take a mouthpiece and sit in with whomever if the opportunity arises. MAR: So when you came back to Minneapolis, you decided to go into music? PCH: Oh, by then I knew music was my main interest. And like I say I had been in touch with the Naval Band personnel, most of those guys out at the Wold Chamberlain were out of the Kentucky area. On furloughs I used to sit in with them and we becameSociety friends and they knew I was a musician, a playing musician, and we were all discharged about the same time. And the way it all happened, the guys couldn’t decide on who they wanted to be their leader—a little professional jealousy. So in a way I was the outsider, but this was my home, which made a little sense that maybe I would have more contacts. So I became the leader. I just inherited a great group of fine musicians. That was the beginning of the Percy Hughes music. Historical We were an instant hit with the colleges, the Universities. I remember playing many homecomings for, like, Hamline, Macalester, St. Thomas, the U of M—you name the schools— Canton. We were very popular theand at Twinthat time theCities one guy Oralthat really History made it all come Project together for us was Leigh Kamman. At that time he was a disc jockey and you called people on radio that sold jazz, disc jockeys then, overMinnesota WLOL. He had a corner, “Jazz Corner,” he called it, jazz on Saturday afternoon. He used to have me on his program quite often. We became very good friends. Jazz in Then he started producing concerts, and I was always his house band backing up singles, and we would be part of the concert, playing our compositions. I remember backing up Patty Page before she gave her “Doggy in the Window” thing. She was just a very nervous, frightened young lady, and I helped make her hang loose just by talking with her and everything, back stage. She remembered that quite some years afterwards when she came to the Minneapolis auditorium, after she was very big—the “Doggy in the Window” and her other songs—and my band was a standby band. At that time, any time a big name person or group came to the Minneapolis auditorium they had to have a standby band. I used to get quite a few engagements like that. I can remember once with Duke Ellington. But anyway, she recognized me. She came 3 down, and we reminisced, and she thanked me again for making her comfortable. That was meaningful. MAR: During this time were you a full time musician or did you have another job? PCH: Before the war, I started working for Minneapolis Honeywell, and I was in their orchestra.

Load more

  12

Copy Link