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Hal













Photo credit: G. Elfendahl


Harold
Alden
Champeness
Champ
1923 ~ 2014 ~ Always



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HAL CHAMP CHAMPENESS: NW JAZZ LEGEND
By Gerald Elfendahl

Harold Alden Hal Champ Champeness, 90, beloved legendary Pacific NW
upright jazz bassist, singer and humorist died April 10 in Poulsbo. He lived most of his
life in Seabold on Bainbridge Island.
Hals parents were from Norway Bernt Nikolai Kjaempenes from Alden and
Esther Kallset from Halse. Bernard and Esther Champeness married in 1920 in Everett.
Hal was born August 9, 1923 and was raised with his younger sister, Solveig, in Seabold.
Heres Hal in first grade at Olympic School in the Islands Manzanita School District . . .

Olympic School, Manzanita, 1929-1930, Grades 1- 6
(located on W. Day Rd. site of todays power sub-station).
Photo credit: Estate of Bob Oliver, March 2008.

When Island school districts consolidated, Hal ventured to Winslows
Lincoln School on a school bus made from a truck, benches and chicken-wire.
Customs records show Hal, 10, going to Bergen during the Great
Depression, sailing from NY in August 1933. Hals son recalls, He went with
his mother and sister and lived with his grandmother long enough to learn to
speak Norwegian.
Entering Bainbridge HS in 1938 with a better school bus, Hal loved
music and played violin in the orchestra seen here circa 1940 . . .
Thats Hal, age
6, second from
right in the front
row . . .

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Hal loved singing baritone with the glee club and was selected by Miss
Ausve for the senior boys quartet with Silven Moench, tenor; Jim Johansson,
bass; and Carl Ness, lead. They sang jazz standards such as Aint She
Sweet - and Always. The quartet would sing beyond high school and for
always - at 20
th
and 40
th
class reunions and whenever they got together
through the years.
The year 1940 was significant to young Hal as a month before Hal
became a senior at BHS, his father, Bernard, 51, died. (Hals mother, Esther,
lived a half-century longer to 101 years.)
Singer and letterman Hal was vocal, too, on yell squad, student council,
as baseball manager; and at calling plays or barking signals in football. Hal
was a shifty, 5-3 short, 140 lb. quarterback and the 1940 squads
Inspirational Award recipient! Size posed no obstacle in football . . . or music.


In 1940, Hal recalled, there was a band on the Island that needed a
bass player so I found a bass and jumped at the chance to join them.
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Though the stringed giant was over a foot taller than Hal, he would
play the upright bass for the next 71 years!
Hal served as a US Navy radio operator in the Pacific Theater during
World War II and acquired another bass from a sailor who was shipping out.
By the time Hal mustered out in July 1945, the bass was in eight pieces. A
Seattle craftsman put the bass back together and he used it until 2011.


In 1953, Hal married Ruth Ekanger. They had a son, Hal Jr. and lived in Ballard.
Hal helped J. K. Gill - Lowman & Hanford with personnel and sales weekdays. Evenings
and weekends, he built tree houses and shared Cub Scout hikes with his son and played
music. He donned straw hat and red jacket with the Bill Sears Sextet who brought life
to civic and sporting events. Hals musicianship and spirit attracted another musician
with Scandinavian roots - Stan Boreson. Hal played with Boreson for 45 years.
Barbara Boreson exudes, Hal was about the sweetest guy who ever
came down the pipe! Stan and I really loved him. His sharp wit and ready
laughter made life a lot of fun over the years!


Hal joined the Musicians Association in 1946.
He was a member for the rest of his life. He
toured the Deep South for a spell adding
blues and jazz to his repertoire of polkas,
waltzes and schottisches, returning to the
Pacific Northwest in the early 1950s.
STAN BORESON BAND CD
The band recorded 26 of their most
requested songs including vocals by Hal.
Barbara Boreson notes, My favorite
song of Hals is on this CD - a beautiful
rendition of Oh Danny Boy .
The CD is dedicated to a wonderful
friend and fabulous musician, Hals
Seabold neighbor, Chuck Bennett who
played guitar, banjo and vocals. Hes
seen here on the CD cover with Stan
Boreson, accordion and vocals; Ted
Simon, drums; Peter Lederer, piano; and
Hal Champeness, bass and vocals.
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In addition to Boresons band, Hal had his Umbrella City Five and he
kept his bass thumping with work from the union hall. He played with touring
jazz greats and became one himself. His annual birthday picnic in Seabold
was popular with jazz musicians and his BHS classmates for whom he
became simply Champ.

Hal married three times. All his wives died of cancer. His second spouse,
1972-1984, was Leila Lee Bailey; and in 1985, he married Ruby Wells. Ruby had once
met Ella Fitzgerald and loved jazz.
"We were perfect fit for one another," said Champeness. "She was cute then and
was until her dying day. She really knew how to be funny, too. She wanted her headstone
to read, `See, I told you I was sick.' "
After Rubys passing, Hal moved to Little Norway - Poulsbo - where he
enjoyed a home overlooking the Olympics from Odin Street, the fellowship at
The Sons of Norway and over coffee every Thursday morning with his BHS
1941 classmates Jerry Nakata, Earl Hanson, Jim Johansson, Silven
Moench, Carmen Rerecich Berry and others at Poulsbos Central Market.
Music and hauling that bass around kept Hal young. On weekends with
the No Inhibitions Jazz Band, he might play in Wenatchee, Sequim or Ocean
Shores. Tuesday and Wednesday nights, he helped rock Keyports Whiskey
Creek Steak House with masterful musician friends for a large following.
Hals 88
th
birthday celebration at Whiskey Creek was standing room only. In
2011, Champ set down his giant bass, tried a smaller one briefly, and
decided to carry on his love of music as a vocalist.
INTENSELY VIGOROUS . . .
Champ donned straw hat and red shirt
again with Eve (Nygard) Vollers Bourns, John
Rudolph, Dale Brown and others who founded the
Intensely Vigorous, Revolutionary, Volunteer
Dixieland Jazz Band and who every year set the
tone for the Islands Grand Old Fourth Parade.
In 1989, they were featured on National
Public Radios Washington State Centennial
Music Fest broadcast live from Island Center
Hall on nationally syndicated Sandy Bradleys
Potluck.

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When Don Alverson & Friends moved to Silverdales Old Town Bistro,
Hal continued to sing with them there on Tuesday nights. Below Hal is seen
with No Inhibitions Jazz Band surrounded by (l to r): Terry Strong, trombone;
Jeff Winslow, clarinet; Willy Petersen, band leader and trumpet; Julie
Ernesti, keyboard; Mike Ernesti, drums; and Dale Brown, banjo.









In 2009, Hal joined three-generations of Bainbridge HS alumni who
gathered again in hallways for a reunion of students who had attended the
WHISKEY CREEK
Don Alverson & Friends at
Keyports Whiskey Creek Steak House
featured Alverson on piano; Bruce
Simpson, drums; Jeff Winslow, clarinet;
and Hal joined at the hip with his bass.
Yvonne McAllister, popular second
generation jazz trumpeter, and frequent
special guest,was absent for this photo.


ALWAYS . . .
In 2010, Hal and the band recorded
love songs on a classic CD The Champ!
A careful ear to Always recalls high school
as Hal sings . . .
Ill be loving you in the hallways . . .
CD cover art: Aiko Diehl
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original 1928 to 1976 school. Always inspirational, Hal dressed special for
the occasion in his original class sweater.

Photo credit: Joel Sackett
Human rights were a matter of concern to Hal and his 1941
classmates. They experienced one of the saddest days of our lives the
uprooting of classmates, friends and neighbors during World War II. Hal
became an active participant in Sakai Middle Schools multi-cultural
programs and in Island efforts that created the Nidoto Nai Yoni Let It Not
Happen Again Memorial to the war time exclusion of Americans of Japanese
ancestry, part of the National Park Services Minidoka National Historic Site.
Champeness is seen in a moving video interview conducted by Islander
Hisa Matsudaira for the digital Densho Japanese American Legacy Project at
(www.densho.org
and http://archive.densho.org/Core/SegmentsByInterview.aspx?id=370)
The weekend before Hal died, he joyously attended a jazz concert at
Island Center Hall with legendary international W. C. Handy Award recipient
blues and jazz guitarist, T. J. Wheeler. TJ and Hal thrilled audiences a
decade ago when they shared that stage in concert. He attended Sons of
Norways pancake breakfast the next day and joined hundreds of his old
friends at Woodward School for the Memorial Celebration of the life of Dr.
Frank Kitamoto, president, Bainbridge Is. Japanese American Community.
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On April 10 a house fire took Champs breath away. On the Tuesday
following, Don Alverson & Friends at The Bistro dedicated their evening to
Hal. There was silence as 92-year-old jazz trumpeter, Yvonne McAllister,
played Taps.
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Photo credit: Megan Reid, Kitsap SUN
Song credit: Irving Berlin

Ill be loving you, always,
With a love thats true, always.
When the things youve planned
Need a helping hand,
I will understand, always . . . Always.
Days may not be fair, always,
Thats when Ill be there, always
Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year,
But always!
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