Obituary: James “Jimmy†Stevenson
Published: Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 8:01 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 8:01 p.m.
James “Jimmy†Stevenson, a free-spirited jazz man who played
with some of the greats in New York City decades ago and
more recently toyed with his keyboard while waiting for
motorists to pull up to the colorful wind-chime stand he ran
for 22 years alongside River Road near Forestville, died
Wednesday. He was 70.
Stevenson lived in Santa Rosa and just recently perused a
new book, “The Loft Jazz Project.†He's included in the
book, which features late photographer W. Eugene Smith's
pictures and taped conversations of jazz musicians who
jammed the nights away in a funky loft in Manhattan's flower
district in the late 1950s and ‘60s.
Stevenson was one of them. Having grown up as the eldest of
12 children in a musical family in Detroit, he took up the
standing bass and ventured off to play with the likes of
Charlie Parker, Chick Corea, Johnny Mathis, Thelonious Monk
and Archie Shepp.
He was playing in Montreal in 1967 when he met the young
woman with whom he'd spend the rest of his life, Suzanne
Roach of Santa Rosa.
“I met him at a hippie crashpad,†she remembered. A short
time later they came to Santa Rosa together and sank roots.
Stevenson never stopped playing music after moving to
California but he gave up performing. He went into
recycling, became a sculptor and created and sold glass wind
chimes.
“Oh my God, we've been through so much together,†said
Roach, his life partner and mother of his six children. “We
didn't have a lot of money but we had a lot of fun and a lot
of love.â€
The two of them made glass chimes and more than 20 years ago
sold them to high-end retailers at San Francisco's
Ghirardelli Square and on Cannery Row in Monterey — “even
Nieman Marcus for a while,†said son Star Stevenson of Santa
Rosa.
Roach recalled that one summer in the mid-eighties,
wholesale sales of the chimes were slow so she decided she'd
set up a table in a turnout on River Road between the
Hacienda Bridge and the Korbel winery. She invited Stevenson
to come with her but he wasn't interested.
“So Star and I went,†Roach recalled. Sales were pretty good
that first day, so they went back. She said, “On the third
day I got a $50 bill and I came home and snapped it in his
face and he said, ‘Maybe I will come and help you!'â€
For the next 22 years, until just last year, he manned the
roadside stall at least on the weekends and up to six or
seven days a week when warm weather boosted the traffic on
River Road.
One of the great surprises of Stevenson's life came in 2003,
when he was contacted by Sam Stephenson of Duke University's
Center for Documentary Studies. The researcher asked his
help in identifying the jazz musicians who appeared in
thousands of photos and hundreds of hours of tape recordings.
All of the photos had been shot and the tapes recorded by
renowned and obsessive photographer W. Eugene Smith from
1957 to 1965, the years he lived in a shabby loft on Sixth
Avenue in New York's wholesale flower district.
Smith photographed and recorded the jazz musicians who
gathered in an adjacent loft to play, sometimes all night.
Jimmy Stevenson, who'd lived in the jazzmen's loft from
early 1961 through 1964, took time away from his stand to
help Duke's Stephenson identify musicians in the photos and
on the tapes.
Stevenson told the researcher, “You can't imagine somebody
calling you up out of the blue and telling you that they've
got tapes — many, many hours of tapes — of you talking and
playing music 45 years ago.
“Hearing these tapes is like somebody playing back your
memories for you, only these are memories you forgot you
had. But these aren't just memories, this is real!â€
The result of Stephenson's research is a multi-dimensional
project (www.jazzloftproject.org) that includes the new
book, an exhibition to open Feb. 17 at the New York Public
Library for the Performing Arts and a multi-part radio series.
James Stevenson was living with complications of Hepatitis C
and liver disease when he was hospitalized on New Year's Eve
with bleeding of his esophagus. He was too ill or sedated to
speak for several days, but shortly before he died was able
to say good-byes to his family.
In addition to his partner and sons Scott and Star,
Stevenson is survived by daughter Elizabeth Stevenson
Buchanan of Milford, Mich.; sons James Stevenson of Azusa
and Zip Stevenson of Los Angeles, stepson Jerry Roach of
Santa Rosa, siblings Tom Stevenson of Salisbury, Maryland;
Billy Stevenson of Las Vegas, Bob Stevenson of Chandler,
Ariz.; Dan Stevenson of Phoenix, John Stevenson of Cullman,
Ala.; Mary Garlak of Commerce, Mich., and Nancy Hussey,
Janie Nichols, Sally Lucca, Terry Stevenson and Gerry
Stevenson, all of Waterford, Mich., and 11 grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held in Michigan.
Stevenson's family suggests memorial contributions to The
Smile Train, 41 Madison Ave., 28th Floor, New York, NY.,
10010, or www.smiletrain.org.
- Chris Smith
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- Saturday, January 09, 2010 at 00:05:22 (EST)
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