I have been listening to a guy in my neighborhood who's been playing coffee houses and small venues for years...his name is Ray Kamalay. He used to play thursday nights at the old Varsity Inn in East Lansing, probably up until about 10 years ago. Then he started playing at Cappucino Cafe...he occasionally does gigs at the Ark in Ann Arbor, and has a very successful jazz quartet called the "Red Hot Peppers". He has played with such greats as Howard Armstrong, and Walter White, among others. He prides himself on being "a musician with a garden and a library card". I used to go to the Varsity when I was going through my divorce and would have a beer and listen to him for hours...he I guess more than anyone else turned me on to Django, and the old jazz standards like
Count Basie, Ellington, Waller, Razif, Morton, etc...my favorite is a song he does which was featured on the Marx Bro's "night at the circus", called "Lydia the Tattooed lady".
He is also a true Renaissance man and will comfortably discuss politics, gardening, or philosophy. If you ever get a chance to check him out, I highly recommend that you take a minute and meet him. I suppose he's one of the hundreds of interesting people who've floated through my life in semi-anonymity, but who I consider myself lucky to have met.
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