11/24/2017
My first ever celebrity interview was with his guy, Jon Hendricks, who passed away this week, age 96. I was in college and was told to meet him at his hotel downtown before his performance at Northwestern. I got there and was told to call his room phone from the lobby but the line was busy and stayed that way. Eventually, nervous that I was now late for my interview, I talked the hotel into having a security guy es**rt me up to his room. By this time I'm really late and flustered. And then Hendricks greets me at the door in brightly colored polka-dot pajamas, with a huge smile on his face and I relaxed. His wife Judith made me cocoa before she and their daughter Aria went to the hotel gym. They all performed together. Anyway, my tape ran out after 90 minutes but we talked for hours. Or rather I listened and he told story after story about the grand times of jazz and first-hand accounts of working with the masters. Judith and Aria were amused, but maybe not surprised I was still there when they got back. Eventually, he said it was the best interview he'd ever done because "I just let him talk." There was a lesson there that I still try to practice. He signed a CD for my dad with his famous "Short jazz poem: Listen." If you haven't, you should give him a listen. Maybe start with the Freddie Freeloader disc... or the Evolution of the Blues. RIP.
