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rpklich

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Posts posted by rpklich

  1. I’m a candidate for fusion surgery as well.  Lumbar region.  For me the surgery is scary.  My future spinal surgeon told me “don’t get the surgery unless you’re screaming in pain.”  It is risky. Was told 30% of the surgery ends in failure as the pain is worse or remains the same, and/or that there are mobility issues.  Would assume cervical is similar.  Diet and exercise help me a bit.  I’ve managed to avoid the surgery for 10+ years, but at times, it gets pretty painful and is getting harder to get relief.  Part of the problem is knowing what questions you should ask.  Use a physician relative or friend to help with what you should be asking your surgeon and neuro person.  Good luck. 

    See you at the Hungry Brain?

  2. Sad news.  I was lucky to hear him live a few times as an accompanist.  Last time I heard him was when he led his own trio at the Chicago Jazz Fest.  Nice set.  Like so many other significant jazz musicians out of this city (Chicago) he was a DuSable High Grad, and Capt Walter Dyett was his band teacher. 

  3. Finally got my first vaccine shot on Friday.  Since January on daily basis I went to 6 websites.  Walgreens, CVS, Jewel-Osco, Mariano’s, City of Chicago and Cook County.  Same result every time.  A local  State Senator and State Rep heard the same complaints from constituents over and over again and decided to do a Covid vaccine event.  Bless them.  Civics lesson:  state legislators control a lot of pursestrings. 

  4. In the mid 70s to the late 80s I worked in a record store in Chicago.  Eddie used to drop by when he was in his former hometown, visiting relatives and friends.  One of his friends was the store manager.  Eddie was a pretty good pool player, at least better those of us who worked in the store.  The player who got him to pick up the sax in the first place was Earl Bostic.  “You think I started by listening to Charlie Parker?”  Eddie asked.  He was a great storyteller.  His band teacher in high school was Capt. Walter Dyett, subject of a few of those stories  One scene that is etched in my mind was Eddie asking (begging?) the owner of the store (who owned a label) to record him. Eddie was willing to finance the session.  It was the late 70s, a real difficult time for jazz and the owner.  He was turned down to my disbelief.  

     

     

  5. Very sympathetic to everyone posting.  The USPS lost only two packages for me last year. (One was books the other cds.) That doesn’t bother me as much as it is ten days since I received my regular mail.  Junk mail, bills, tax statements, letters etc.  Nothing.  I live in a 3 flat in Chicago and nobody else in the building has received anything either.  Same with six flat next door.  They are making the case to go paperless.  Emailed USPS, and only got an automatic response.   Having good results with packages by getting them sent to a relative in the suburbs.

  6. Heard him several times with various Mingus bands.  He and Hamiett Bluiett who was also in the band at the time would roll their eyeballs back when they soloed so you wouldn't their eyeballs but only the whites of their eyes.

  7. I met Zoot Sims at the Corona restaurant back room in Chicago.  He was playing at the Jazz Showcase with Al Cohn.  The next time the pair played at the Showcase, I ran into Al Cohn at the same restaurant.  He seemed surprised anyone would recognize him.  I love Serge Chaloff's version of the tune so I asked him If he still played the "Goof and I".  "You heard of it?"  he replied.

  8. This guy lead so many great bands and was part of a few other great bands.  I became aware of him and his brother (and Oscar Hernandez, and Manny Orquendo and Chocolate Armenteros) through the band Grupo Folklorico Y Experimental Nuevaorquino and an album called "Concepts in Unity".  A great album.  

  9. A few years back I almost got run over by him in his blueberry blue Rolls Royce. He was driving.  It was in New Orleans and Louisana had decided  to make the Cosmo Matassa recording studio an historic site and there was dedication  ceremony that I attended . The studio was where a lot of New Orleans R&B music (including Fats) had been recorded.    It had become a laundromat. The ceremony drew quite a crowd including me.  I was forced to stand in the street which was where our close encounter occurred.  He apologized!  My brush with fame! 

    I was very lucky to have heard him live a couple of times at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fest.  He was very good and so was his band.  R.I.P. Fats

  10. At a Chicago Jazz Fest many years ago he was featured in a Horace Tapscott led reprisal of the Sonny Criss lp "Sonny's Dream ( Birth of the New Cool)".  Arthur Blythe took the Criss role and was great.  It remains one of the best sets I ever heard at the many Chicago Jazz Fests I attended.   God bless Arthur Blythe.  R.I.P.

  11. He always had great bands with Bill O'Connell, Robby Ameen and Richie Flores. I liked his stuff with Manny Orquendo's Libre.  I agree with StarThrower, in that his last years he served as poster child for our country's healthcare system with his family and friends going to social media to try and scrounge up money.

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