CHARLES IN CHICAGO (The Final Part): KIM CUSACK and ANDY SCHUMM (2018)

My friend Charles keeps on providing surprises from his Spring trip to Chicago, where he captured Kim Cusack and Andy Schumm on video at the Honky Tonk, although he assures me that this is The End of his Secret Stash.

Dear Michael,

I dug down into the video archives (where the videos sleep on the computer) and found six more little gems to share with you and your blog-audience.  These performances are a little more noisy — people gnawing on ribs and suchlike — but Kim and Andy come through beautifully.  I’ll be in New York at the start of October, and we shall meet . . . .

Your pal,

Charles

On the Mildred Bailey radio show, circa 1944-45, she refers to her selected jazz group (Teddy Wilson, Al Hall, Red Norvo, others) as her HOT HALF-DOZEN.  Here is the 2018 version of that collective noun:

YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE OF ME:

LIMEHOUSE BLUES:

JAPANESE SANDMAN:

TROUBLE IN MIND:

MELANCHOLY BABY:

INDIANA:

And since the Cornucopia According to Charles is now well and truly emptied, it’s up to you to get out and hear Kim and Andy — as a duo, or in other permutations — on your own.  No slacking, now.

May your happiness increase!

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CHARLES IN CHICAGO (Part Two, Spring 2018): KIM CUSACK and ANDY SCHUMM at the HONKY TONK BBQ

If you don’t know who CHARLES is, you might want to catch up here.  I thought his beneficence had limits but happily I was wrong.  Yesterday, this note arrived, with musical treats attached.

Dear Michael,

Just a word to say how pleased I was you used my videos of Kim and Andy on JAZZ LIVES.  Makes me feel like chucking my job and videoing full-time.  You’ll have to let me in on your financial secrets.  Ha! 

But here are a few more I shot — hope they are OK.  The room got noisier, but I bet the Lincoln Gardens wasn’t silent either — although I doubt that there were loud kids in the joint.

With every good wish and looking forward to our NYC rendez-vous,

Charles. 

Friends of Fats:

and James P, too:

Quiet, now:

This one’s got some Bix-chords:

and the first half of the Official Carmen Lombardo Tribute:

Carmen wrote some wonderful tunes:

What a nice surprise.

May your happiness increase!

GIFTS FROM CHARLES: KIM CUSACK and ANDY SCHUMM at the HONKY TONK BBQ

You never know where generosities are going to come from; they can be dear surprises.  On my trip to Wisconsin in March, I was disappointed that I couldn’t get to Chicago to hear Kim Cusack, clarinet / vocal; Andy Schumm, piano, at the Honky Tonk BBQ.

But I received an email — with attachments — the other day:

Dear Michael,

It’s been a long time since we were graduate students, and we haven’t been in touch.  I didn’t talk about it then — we were too worried about doctoral orals — but I was developing into a jazz fan, and I found you through your blog.  I was passing through Chicago at the end of March on my way to visit family in California, and thought I would bring the video camera I use for the grandkids.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so here are a few videos of Kim Cusack and Andy Schumm.  If you can use them on the blog, I’d be delighted.  

Keep well,

Charles

The fog of decades lifted — I’d last seen Charles Schultz (who got annoyed if someone called him “Snoopy”) in 1981.  But what a lovely gift!  Not just for me, but for all of us.  And he does first-rate work.

and

and

and, finally, with vocal refrain:

Charles and I have tentative plans to meet in New York in August.  What a pleasure that will be, and neither of us will video the other.

May your happiness increase!