gets a standing ovation
Richard Crooks – gets a standing ovation
Richards son, left, and his good friend Bill Blue, right, at the first Crooks Second Line Celebration
In 2013, after shooting a recording session for Bill Blue’s album, Mojolation (his first new album in over 30 years), I had lunch with Bill. He described how all the musicians in Key West wanted to help record his new music. One in particular was the world class drummer, Richard Crooks. Bill loved recording music with Richard. He said all Richard does is “make music better.”
Bill talked about a song that he was recording called “Sing Like Thunder”. He had written the song when he was 18 years old. Bill had given all the charts and materials to the musicians before the recording session. Richard came early for the session and spoke to Bill about a couple of ideas he had regarding the Thunder song. 
Bill said, had it been anyone but Richard Crooks, he would have probably said, “Let’s just do it the way we’ve been doing it for 50 years”. Instead, he listened to what Richard had to say. After the session, Bill said they recorded the best version of Thunder ever. Richard also recorded music with Chris Rehm, Lance Taylor, and many others in Key West.
Richard Crooks grew up in Gilroy, a small community in Santa Clara County, California. Gilroy’s claim to fame is the Garlic Capital of the World, and the home of Richard Crooks. Crooks grew up listening to Wolfman Jack and playing drums in high school. He went on to graduate from San Jose State and played jazz around the San Francisco Bay area. He moved to the music center of Los Angeles and hooked up playing backup for several recording artists. This led to a decades long associations with many major artists, including New Orleans legend Doctor John.
Richard’s storied career would take up a few weekly columns. In the interest of brevity, it has been half-jokingly said that Richard had played or recorded with everyone except the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. We did find a couple of Rolling Stone horn players that he recorded with so technically, it may only be the Beatles. Richard moved east and became a premier studio session musician in New York for over 25 years. One of Richard’s long term friendships and music touring associations was with David Bromberg. Bromberg visited Richard in Key West often.
Richards cool NOLA voodooo outfit at Fantasy Fest when we first met.
Richard Crooks moved to Key West in 2008. I first met Richard during a Fantasy Fest Parade viewing. He was dressed in a very cool Voodoo outfit. He was very unassuming and didn’t brag about his many accomplishments, like helping to record Bob Dylan’s 1975 Blood on the Tracks album. I didn’t even know he was a musician for almost a year.
Richard dovetailed into the Key West music scene and became one of the founding members of the Green Parrot Sunday Jazz Ensemble which lasted for nearly fifteen years. More than once David Bromberg sat in with Crooks at the gig when visiting Key West. Green Parrot managing partner John Vagnoni was a huge fan of both. Vagnoni tells a story of one Sunday afternoon when he was behind the bar while Bromberg sat in with Crooks and was performing some of his original blues songs. He overheard a local patron say “he sounds just like David Bromberg”. Moments like this in Key West are very special – John walked over to the patron and said, “That is David Bromberg”.
Richard’s wife Nina, mother-in-law Martha, and Richard at his 72nd Birthday celebration at the Green Parrot
Once he started playing music all the pain disappeared.
Crooks performed with many Key West players. One of his favorite gigs was Friday nights with Barry Cuda at funky BO’s Fish Wagon. On January 16, 2014, Barry Cuda had a gig at the Green Parrot. It was Richard’s 72nd birthday and Cuda invited him to come and sit-in for a couple of songs. Word got out that Richard would be playing and the Parrot was packed. Richard’s failing health made walking difficult. His good friend and fellow drummer, Mick Kilgos helped him setup behind the drum kit. Cuda started a boogie-woogie standard and Richard’s face lit up with a huge smile. He was only going to play one or two songs – he played five. Mick didn’t think he was getting his drums back. That was Richard’s last birthday celebration. He passed away in December 2014.
A Celebration of Life was held in his honor on January 25, 2015. It was an enormous outpouring of love for a very special person. Friends of Richard from across the country attended. Key West friends turned out in the hundreds at 10 a.m. for Bloody Marys at the Hog’s Breath Saloon. At 1:00 p.m. a New Orleans style Second Line, estimated 400 people, began their march down Duval Street to Southard Street and continued to the blocked-off area alongside the Green Parrot. A funeral band of over 30 musicians played along the route. The crowd grew all day. A very informal collage of musicians took the stage and played music for three more hours celebrating Richard’s amazing life.
I was on stage taking photographs of performers and looked out at the standing room only crowd and saw as many musicians in the audience as music lovers. At least a hundred musicians joined the celebration. A celebration of someone’s life had never been so compelling with an outpouring of love and respect as they had for Richard Crooks. While standing in the Green Parrot listening to all this great music for hours, his good friend David Bromberg said “Richard would have liked this.” That comment was echoed by many of Richard’s friends.
Richard hasn’t been forgotten. The Crooks Second Line Celebration became an annual fundraiser for the Bahama Village Music Program. For the past ten years …. and counting, it has provided scholarships for two Key West high school students annually to the Berklee School of Music Summer Program. Like the song lyric written by another of Richard’s good friends musician Freebo, “When I die, give me a standing ovation for a job well done.”
Mick Kilgos and his good friend Richard Crooks at the 72nd Birthday celebration.
There are no comments yet, add one below.
Leave a Reply