Sunday, January 28, 2007

Chico Chism-Rest in Peace



Chico Chism died, Bob Corritore just sent out the information on Chico in the following paragraphs. The photo to the left is a fairly recent (10/2006) photo of Chico Chism with Walkin' Cane Mark. The very first time I ever saw Chico, he was a guest singer at Walkin' Cane Mark's Christmas Party at the Blue Note on McDowell; many, many, many years ago. You can go to Chico's myspace http://www.myspace.com/chicodrumschism and listen to 4 of his great songs. You can also read a recent Niki D'Andrea Phoenix New Times article on Chico at Phoenix New Times.

Lowell
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From Bob Corritore (01-28-07)

"Chico Chism May 23, 1927 – January 28, 2007 – Rest In Peace: Our beloved Chico Chism left us this morning around 5am. Since his 2002 stroke, Chico’s health had been gradually deteriorating. He spent this last week in a very weak state, unable to get out of bed. But he found much joy in his many visitors this last week. His last few days were spent mostly peacefully sleeping. Chico never appeared in pain. He is survived by his daughter, Audrey, who was able to visit her father earlier this week from Chicago. He was 79 years old. Phoenix will never be the same without our blues cheerleader. We have all been profoundly touched by this beautiful person."

“I’m the house rocker and the show stopper, the woman’s pet and the man’s threat. I’m Chico, the Boogie Man.” – Chico Chism

Bob Corritore will pay tribute to Chico Chism tonight on KJZZ Phoenix, 91.5FM, and will re-air an interview with Chico from 2004. You can listen online at www.kjzz.org.

Memorial service information forthcoming.

2 comments:

Mariah Fleming said...

Thank you Lowell. Chico was one of a kind. He has been through so much in the past few years with his health. Wonderful of you to put these posts up. There will be something on the AMEHOF website too.

Anonymous said...

For anyone that is interested, there's a video of Chico Chism on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOk9406NcjM

It's an interview with Chico Chism and Bob Corritore by Joel Samuel around 1991. The video runs about 6 minutes. Joel has posted a lot of great old videos of various Arizona musicians (mentioned in some earlier KCAC lives! blogs).