Craig Russell

I met Craig Russell in the subway one night. He was on his way to his hit show at the Royal York.
Craig was entertaining about 6 people. He was sitting beside a wino and a small group had gathered around him and he had them in stitches. I stood and watched for awhile and when I got an opening I held out my hand. "Hi Craig I always wanted to meet you. I am a friend of your friend Sandy's." " oh Sandy, How is she? he pushed against the wino slightly to make room for me to sit down.We talked about Sandy for a couple of minutes and suddenly he stopped sniffing."What is that horrible smell?"he gasped. "I am afraid it is your friend." I said nodding to the wino. "Shit!" he said "there goes the promise I made to myself to fuck anybody that asked me."
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Craig Russell (from glbtq)

Marcel Barbeau

Marcel was a delightful absolute madman. I met him through Jerry Santbergan in the 60s. he always seemed to be married to some heiress and had tons of money. After drinking 9 bottles of champagne at the rooftop bar at the Park Plaza. Marcel orders a tenth bottle. he sips it dumps the bottle upside down in the ice bucket. "Bah it is young and fruity he yells. so we get kicked out. One night we left the Pilot Tavern to walk down to an opening at a gallery some where south of Bloor. It was garbage night and Marcel gets me to help him carry a 10 ft long piece of cardboard tubing and plastic wrap to the gallery where he tells the owner it is one of his Artworks and he wants to store it there.

Cannonball and Nat Adderley

I met Cannonball and Nat Adderley at the colonial Tavern in 1969. Mickey Handy introduced me. Cannon and Nat became good friends and i was their Toronto buddy whenever they came to Toronto, we spent many days hanging out at the underground railroad etc
I once cooked a seafood chowder dinner for them at Grossmans Tavern. Al let me use the kitchen and was the special of the day. It sold out quickly.
One night I took them to Gordon Rayner's Studio to watch an Artist's Jazzband rehearsal. they liked it but would not jam.
This was very much a "Blackpower time and they got invited to all the Black after hours clubs. But they would not go without me. I knew most of the black clubs and we had a lot of fun.
I was on their permanent guest list at the Colonial and I got to listen to great jazz and meet their fabulous sidemen like  Louis Hayes,Ray Brown, Walter Booker, Bobby Timmons, Victor Feldman, Joe Zawinul.

One night I was late getting to the Colonial , they were halfway through the set and the bar was packed full. The only place for me to sit was at the staff table. They would not serve me until I moved so i sat there drink less till the set was over.They joined me at the end of the set and ordered us drinks. They still refused to serve me. So Nat called the manager over and told them they were not going to play until I was drinking. needless to say that never happened again.

After Cannonball's tragic death in 1975 Nat played Toronto regularly and he was always glad to see me. He embarrassed me on my birthday at the Montreal Bistro by dedicating almost every song to me. Vincent Herring was with him.  I met his wife too and spent a few nights sitting with her.

Cannonball had never heard Paul Desmond's tribute to him until I told him.
Paul Desmond won the Evergreen Review's  Higgledy piggled contest with

Shubada Shubadee
Cannonbal Adderley
Came on the scene with a belt of the blues.
His popularity
Coincidentally
Gives me more time
For women and booze.