Hugh Logan’s music lives on in those he touched
His life was filled with music. And his music will never die.
It will live on in the lives he touched every time he picked up one of his saxophones, or flute, or any one of the multiple instruments he played, and shared the songs that lived in his soul.
Musician Hugh Logan, the man everyone thought would live forever, died on Monday at age 90.
He had spent the past two weeks at St. Catharines hospital, where musician friends took turns at his bedside, some staying for hours so he wouldn’t be alone.
His wife, Marie, died last September. They have no children, or family who live close by.
To his band mates, he was known simply as Hughie. He played in several local bands, including alto sax with the Niagara Falls Concert Band, flute with the Thorold Reed Band and lead tenor sax with the Ambassadors Swing Band. Then on Saturday mornings, he drove himself across the border with his baritone sax to play with the Dick Griffo’s Jazz Workshop.
Lois Dix, who conducts both the Niagara Falls Concert and Ambassadors Swing bands, has known Hugh for a decade.
“Hugh was the last of that breed of true gentlemen,” she said.
After his wife died, he wanted to give each of his friends something that had belonged to Marie.
He couldn’t decide what to give Lois, because none of his wife’s nicer clothes would fit her. He was practical that way. So, he offered Lois her towels.
“Could you use them?” he asked.
Lois didn’t really need towels. But she said yes.
“He just wanted to give me something that was Marie’s,” she said.
And that’s really all that mattered.
Jim Stahl, president of the Niagara Falls Concert Band, met Hugh some 30 years ago.
“Even at 90, he was still a very fine player. You could hear the genius of how he played when he was younger.
“You could hear all of that coming out.”
Rhonda Gletherow, president of the Thorold Reed Band, remembers Hugh as a leader, mentor and friend. They met as musicians three decades ago.
“Whenever there was a new musician in the band, he would take them under his wing,” she said. “He would teach you everything he could.
“He was always happy to help anyone who wanted to learn and grow as a musician.”
He had an impressive ability to sight read a piece of music, on multiple instruments, like he’d seen it hundreds of times before. “Like he was just reading ABCs,” she said.
“He’s probably forgotten more about music than any of us will ever know.”
Hugh and his wife Marie were inseparable. She came to every one of his performances, and if a band was on parade and she couldn’t follow, she’d wait at the start for him to return.
“She always said Hughie was the coolest cat she’d ever met.”
Even as he approached 91 years, he was defiant in his independence. So much so, that his friends reacted with surprise when word spread that he was in hospital.
“We just always expected him to go on forever,” said Rhonda. “I guess he always seemed like he would. He was just really young at heart.”
His loss will be felt across the musical community in Niagara.
“You can’t replace a man like Hughie,” she said. “You can hand his folder to somebody else to play, but you can’t replace him.
“For us, his music will never die.
“It will be played over and over again, in our hearts.”
A celebration of his life will be held at a later date.
Hugh was the last of that breed of true gentlemen.”
Lois Dix