In the coming months, the Savannah community will be figuring out how best to honor Ben Tucker. His legacy deserves to become, in some way, a permanent part of our cultural or physical landscape.
There are many options.
Of course, there are the living legacies too. I got in touch last week with three young jazz musicians whose lives were influenced in some way by Ben Tucker.
Alex Nguyen graduated from the Savannah Arts Academy before getting degrees in jazz at the University of North Florida and the State University of New York at Purchase.
Primarily a trumpeter but also at home on the keys, Nguyen is now based in New York City where he plays regular gigs, gives private lessons and instructs aspiring musicians through the New York Jazz Academy.
“I really admire and appreciate how Ben Tucker promoted jazz as an entrepreneur,” Nguyen wrote in a message this week. “Though jazz is a risky business, he went out on a limb to bring jazz to Savannah through his radio station and a jazz club.”
“It was at his club, Hannah’s East, that I saw him with pianist/vocalist Freddy Cole, the first jazz performance I ever experienced after being introduced to jazz in high school,” Nguyen added.
And that turned out to be sort of an important night.
“I can still kind of relive that night in my head; the rapport between the bandmates, how tightly they played together, and the general feeling in the room was such a profound experience for me. It really touched me and inspired me,” Nguyen said.
Andrae Murchison also had his first experience listening to professional live jazz at Hannah’s East. Murchison was attending Savannah High School at the time, before joining one of the first classes at Savannah Arts Academy.
“That night was basically an introduction to jazz for me — to hear Teddy (Adams) on trombone and hear Ben on bass,” Murchison told me last week.
But it wasn’t until he was studying jazz at Oberlin College that Murchison fully realized Tucker’s influence.
“This cat’s been on some real good records,” Murchison remembers thinking after seeing Tucker credited on a Kenny Dorham album.
Murchison told me he only got to know Tucker well in the past year, and the two played together for the first time at the Coastal Jazz Association’s 2012 Christmas concert.
“This past time, we got to hang,” Murchison said. “I got to chat with him a bit and let him know how much I was inspired by him.”
After completing his degree at Oberlin, Murchison studied jazz at Queens College. He just wrapped up the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s latest international tour, which included shows in Switzerland, Germany, Russia and Israel.
Murchison is also one of the newer members of the legendary Ska band The Skatalites. He lives these days in Atlanta with his wife and daughter.
“Ben was just a gem,” Murchison said.
Brendan Polk, another Savannah Arts Academy graduate, is currently finishing his undergrad degree at Florida State University, where he has been studying jazz piano under Bill Peterson and Marcus Roberts.
Polk told me Tucker routinely encouraged him over the years. Tucker even agreed to perform on one of Polk’s audition tapes when he was still in high school.
“I considered him a mentor to me,” Polk said. “I went and saw him play at the Westin a good number of times.”
On each of those occasions, Tucker would ask him to sit in on a few numbers.
Polk also performed with Tucker last December at the Festival of Lights on Hutchinson Island.
“The thing that struck me the most was how into it he was,” Polk said of Tucker’s style. “He was always super present when he was playing.
“Another thing that struck me was he had a ton of soul.”
Polk said Tucker routinely shared tips and advice.
“Ben had an understanding of the original way a lot of songs were played,” Polk said.
“The last time I saw him he was telling me to try to find the original sheet music for songs that I’m playing,” Polk added. “The main thing he always talked about was being able to play a song how it was originally played and having an understanding of the original structure, the original skeleton.
“I wish I could have talked to him more about it.”
City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net and http://www.billdawers.com. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.