[Harp-L] Jeff Carp

["Jesse Sinaiko" <jns@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey Jeff - 
 
First of all, I should say that I wasn't specific enough when I said that
everything in John Schulman's post was true to my knowledge.  I was only
referring to the incident, not the details - I should have been clearer
about that.  I never heard the part about getting to shore and then going
back out to look for his wife and being lost or eaten by sharks at that
point.
 
No, what Sam lay told you is almost EXACTLY what I heard, with one minor and
not contradictory difference.
 
I wasn't told that Jeff specifically was cornered but that everyone jumped
overboard, and only Jeff didn't get back to the boat.
 
It was out in the Gulf somewhere. The owner of the boat - as I was told a
guy named Steve Klee, but I don't have any proof of that - was an
ex-Chicagoan who was living in Panama or Mexico or Belize or someplace, and
had a large sailboat.
 
I don't even remember specifically how I heard the news - it was 35 years
ago and hasn't really been in my frame of reference.  
 
That said, I am attempting to tie them-there synapses together to remember
more detail, or someone who might have more detail.  There were others from
around here on that sailboat, and I trying to connect those dots - I doubt
that anyone still around in the blues community would know what happened -
but I may know someone who knows someone locally.  Although Jeff had kicked
by that time - or so he had said - my sense is, the people he was with were
not from the music community but were, uh, dopers.  I suppose this is partly
based on the the nature of the incident, but also I have a vague memory of
it be a topic of conversation at the time based on who was on the boat.
 
I wonder if there are any recordings in existence of Home Juice.  It was a
really good band - played lots of shuffles and other fast stuff because they
played at U of C dances.  The often opened for bigger acts as well - I
remember a particularly good gig with the headliner being Otis Rush in a gym
at Ida Noyes Hall that was converted into a movie theatre for Doc Films
about 20 years ago, circa 1970.  Also Jr. and Buddy, and Johnny Young, the
mandolin player.
 
I'll see what I can find out.  My guess is that anyone who is in a position
to know, but is outside the blues world, and perhaps even this list isn't
thinking that it has any significance outside his immediate friends or
family.  If anyone is hesitant to talk about it because of what happened,
well, it's been thirty-five years; I doubt that anyone has anything to fear.
When running an obit search in the NY Times I found one for his Dad Eli in
2001, but that was it.  Jeff himself would be pushing 60 by now if he was
alive.
 
Jesse Sinaiko - Chicago