Chapter 18: In a Jam My brother Jimmy got a job in the late ’70s writing for a Chicago weekly magazine called Illinois Entertainer, which is still in business today. He got an interview set up with Fred Ordower, who worked at Jam Productions, the big local promoter in Chicago. Jam Productions was started by…
Chapter 17: The Birth of Evening Star How it Got Started I continued booking Dooley’s for the rest of 1976. By December, I had already started booking shows for the next year. The thing was, sometimes Don Reno didn’t like the shows I suggested. The first one he turned down was Taj Mahal; he wasn’t…
Chapter 16: Muddy Waters – Hard Again! I started booking Muddy Waters in the ’70s through the Paragon Agency out of Georgia. He got $3,500 to do two shows a night. When it comes to legends, there aren’t many bigger than Muddy Waters. This guy has been responsible/credited for much of the sound of great…
Chapter 15: KDOT, Bill Compton and a Missed Opportunity By 1976, I had become buddies with several of the people at KDKB. There was a guy who was already god-like when I met him, named Bill Compton, who was working there as both the program director and a DJ. He was the real heart behind…
Chapter 14: Gato Barbieri Not long after the Outlaws show, the great saxophonist Gato Barbieri came in from Argentina. He had been one of my favorites for years. We used to listen to him in high school as kids, along with other jazz greats like Pharoah Sanders, Miles Davis, and Coltrane. Shamefully, there is hardly…
