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HOLMBERG: Drummer anchors historic jazz jam AND Museum of the Confederacy tour

Posted at 11:12 PM, Jul 17, 2013
and last updated 2022-02-24 15:29:31-05

RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR)--Richmond is home to the Museum of the Confederacy, which opened in 1896.


It’s also home of one of the longest-running jazz jams in the United States, playing every Friday night at the corner of W. Broad and Meadow streets for 30 straight years now.


One man bridges both worlds – Charles Hibbler, one of the most passionate men in the former Capital of the Confederacy.


Doc Branch, who leads the ever-changing lineup there, estimates more than 400 different musicians have played the jam over the years. He’s happy to have Charles anchoring the band every Friday.


“He does a great job,” says Lady E, Richmond’s legendary blues and jazz singer. “And I’m hard on drummers.”


“It’s a dream come true,” Charles Hibbler says of the drumming gig with Doc and friends.


But anyone who knows Charles also knows life in general is a dream come true for him.


That enthusiasm “just pours out of him,” says Elaine Soloway of Tuscon, Arizona, who took Charles’ tour at the White House of the Confederacy recently.

What makes Charles so passionate, so in love with the history of this country  – all of its history –and its people?