[Harp-L] Jeff Carp's Fate, etc.

["Jesse Sinaiko" <jns@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi -

I would like to respond to the post below by John Schulman, who I remember
from my high school days.

I was talking about this incident with a friend the other day - for the
first time in many years, and he mentioned this list. 

I am a resident and native of Hyde Park in Chicago. 

I knew Jeff Carp pretty well, although he was quite a bit older than me - I
was in high school and he was a U of C student.

All of the related story below is true. I certainly wasn't there, but knew
the guy who owned the boat. Basically, what John has related below is the
story I heard in after the incident.

All the other stuff in the post below is also fact, including Howlin Wolf's
heart attack. Carp's band was called Home Juice. It was Sam Lay and later
Paul Morris on drums, Paul Asbell on guitar, and I don't remember who the
bass guy was offhand. It was an excellent band, in the tradition of the
Butterfield Band. 

Jr. and Buddy used to gig at U of C regularly, as did Shaky Horton, Otis
Rush, Magic Sam, Johnny Littlejohn, and others. And I was also at the Cream
set in the Spring of 1968. The guy running the U of C's booking operation
was named Peter Ratner, now deceased. he had a knack for getting really big
groups into Mandel hall, a small venue - I don't know how he did it.

Anyhow, I can more or less confirm the story as told below, second-hand,
from someone who was also on the boat.

Butterfield went to U of C Lab School - I thin he still holds some track and
field records there - and I went to the local public HS, Kenwood.

Jesse Sinaiko - Chicago, IL

Hi, I'm new to the list, which I just discovered in looking for info on Jeff
Carp. I grew up on the South Side of Chicago, in Hyde Park. Paul Butterfield
lived there, having attended my high school before me. He might not have
readily admitted graduating from the U. of Chicago's University High School.
I looked up his yearbook quote, which stated, "I think I am better than
those who are trying to reform me." I was listening to old Butterfield this
evening, and got to thinking about Jeff Carp. I assumed he also lived in
Hyde Park, possibly as a U of C student. I heard him with his band at U of C
dances. I remember he was cool, and had soul. Many years later I renewed a
friendship with an upper echelon professional jazz guitarist, also from Hyde
Park. He told me a slightly different story than on the list. A Hyde Park
friend had told him everyone on the boat was under the influence of the
aforementioned hallucinogenic substance when the boat began taking on water,
in the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently Jeff and his wife both swam to shore
separately, without Jeff knowing she had safely made it.

When he did not see her, he bravely swam back out to find her, and was
killed by sharks. What a way to go.

That possible tragedy having been voiced, I remember U of C events where I
also heard Sam Lay, Johnny Shines, Otis Rush, BB King, Buddy Guy, Jr. Wells,
Muddy Waters, Cream, Butterfield, and the (Corky) Segal-Schwall Band. While
waiting to hear Howlin' Wolf play at the gymnasium, we were informed he had
a heart attack on the way to the gig (but survived). It was a pretty cool
place in which to have grown up, when one could attend these events as a
teen. I never made it to the clubs on 47th St., however. It was this
exposure that inspired me to play bass and attend Berklee College of Music
in 1972 (after bumming around for two years- much to my father's
displeasure!)

Regards,

John