James Pankow

[bloke]

https://chicagotheband.com/news/making ... 2wXUdqTq5I

[JESimmons]

Very interesting. His comment about having to play is exactly the same as what Ray Charles told me when I got to interview him on his 52nd birthday (which was old to me at the time).

[bloke]

sidebar:

I worked with Ray Charles two different times in fairly small bands (about the size of big bands) a few decades ago. One was the very first concert at a nice new venue in a Memphis suburb, and the other was on an outdoor stage down on the Mississippi River bluff. At that time, Charles was letting his grey hair show, and - if he ever dyed it, he wasn’t anymore.
After he passed, I recognized his handler/bodyguard at another gig - where I was playing with a band that opened a show before Bill Cosby came out and did a talk about young people in education. Obviously, Cosby picked up that guy after Charles passed away. Backstage at the Cosby thing, Cosby did invite our bandleader into his dressing room, but no one else. I suspect his troubles had already begun, because it was already well into the 21st-century, at that time.

[Three Valves]

I'm glad I saw them twice. In 1979 and 2019.

[bloke]

I rate Ray Charles as "cool" - not so much because he was cool (which he was), but because his arranger scored for tuba, and he was "cool" with that.

[Three Valves]

Is it true James’ father was heir to a Japanese breadcrumb fortune??