Obituary: Musician Big Rude Jake had talent that ‘was pretty deep’
If you never saw Big Rude Jake perform, you missed an experience.
A fixture on the southern Ontario bar circuit for the last three decades - he played in Hess Village and at This Ain't Hollywood - his music was designed to get your heart pumping and your legs jumping.
His stage name hinted at his style, and his outfit likened to a zoot suit topped it off. He was associated with swing, and even something called swing-punk. A ribald raconteur, he did solo shows with his guitar, but was mostly accompanied by musicians playing horns and saxophones.
All the lyrics are about cars and chicks, and all the songs are loud and greasy," he told the Waterloo Region Record during a visit to Jimmy Jazz in Guelph with his then-band Blue Mercury Coupe in 2009. You can't mess with that as far as I'm concerned."
Sadly, Big Rude Jake won't be playing anymore. Jake - whose real name was Andrew Jacob Hiebert - died of cancer on June 16 at the age of 59.
Hiebert - who moved to Hamilton in 2016 - wasn't just limited to swing. He could tackle any music genre - blues, jazz, rockabilly, gospel and folk music. He was a singer, songwriter, poet and even a music historian, the latter probably due to his degree in history from University of Waterloo (his thesis was on pop culture).
His talent was pretty deep," said singer Robin Magder of Rocket and the Renegades. He was way above us. He was a very creative person and befriended a lot of other creative people."
Magder, who got to know Jake after he moved to Hamilton, said his July 24 celebration of life at Laidlaw Memorial United Church was standing-room only.
That shows you how much he was loved," she said. He was the best and we were lucky to know him."
Hiebert was born March 1, 1963, in St. Catharines to Jake and Amy Hiebert. His parents ran Jake's Chip Wagon, an institution in downtown Niagara Falls. The business had been started by his mother's parents. His father, known as Chip Man," died on April 11 at age 86.
Hiebert told the Guelph Mercury in 2014 he got turned on to music when he saw Leon Redbone perform on Saturday Night Live in 1976.
In the early 1980s, he went to study French in France and sang in an English-language rock band. He returned to Canada where he went to Waterloo and then moved to Toronto in 1988.
He did manual labour jobs - he admits to being fired a couple of times - and then got a job at a bar. He told the Toronto Star in 1996 he watched how musicians lived, bands started and broke up. He started taking guitar lessons and soon found his own band. He chose his 1940s clothing to differentiate himself from others.
Big Rude Jake and His Gentlemen Players was founded in 1992. As audiences grew, he rose up through the club scene and landed residency at two Toronto clubs. He opened for such bands as Big Sugar and played The Viper Room in Los Angeles.
With two independent albums under his belt - Butane Fumes and Bad Cologne" (1993) and Blue Pariah" (1996) - he attempted to crack New York City in 1998 and get a big recording contract. He ran into a string of bad luck, however, such as the band and his manager quitting and getting evicted from his apartment.
So I was homeless in New York, with no band, no job and no real prospects for the future," Hiebert told the Star. I was in a lot of trouble."
He came back to Toronto in 1999 and landed a gig at the Horseshoe Tavern. Then he landed a deal that put his third album - Big Rude Jake" - into the record stores. His 2012 album Live and Out Loud" was recorded at Toronto's Drake Hotel.
Friends have organized a fundraiser for Hiebert's family at Stonewalls Restaurant, 339 York Blvd. It runs 2 to 6 p.m. on Nov. 20.
Hiebert is survived by his wife Anna-Lisa Seeliger, daughter Hope, his mother Amy, brother David and sisters Schelley and Paula.
Daniel Nolan can be reached at dannolanwrites@gmail.com