"How about 'Georgia.' You up for it Joe?"

From his seated position, Joe McQueen takes a drink from a bottle of water and nods his head, pulling the microphone close to his face with one hand as he holds his saxophone in the other. It takes a little warming up, but at 98 years old, jazz saxophonist Joe McQueen can still belt "Georgia on My Mind" and without missing a beat pick up his horn and get back to work.

Joe McQueen arrived in Ogden, Utah, in 1945 with his wife, Thelma, and band for a two-week gig. Then, as now, the jagged ridges of Ben Lomond, Lewis Peak, Malan's Peak and other mountains with only numbers for names frame the city, a rock-solid set piece to a city that has grown up a lot, but hasn't forgotten its roots.

More than seven decades after first arriving in Utah, McQueen plays regular gigs ranging from swelling crowds at the Utah Arts Festival to packed houses on Ogden's historic 25th Street and near downtown Salt Lake City at the indescribable Garage on Beck. In other words, wherever the music takes him.

Music fans throughout Utah mourned McQueen, who died on December 7, 2019, 74 years to the day after he first arrived in Ogden. At 100, the musician was still playing his tenor sax at gigs around town, still celebrated with concerts every April 18, designated in 2002 as Joe McQueen day by Utah’s governor.