Darius de Haas says he and his sister, Aisha, didn’t know any other life than performing; they were just “imitating” their parents.
Darius returned to Chicago in January to star in “Five Guys Named Moe,” based on the music of Louis Jordan, at the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Summit. Since appearing in “Dreamgirls” at Candlelight when he was 19, he has frequently worked in musical theater, most recently in the national tour of “Once on This Island.”
Aisha, who just finished “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” at Apple Tree Theatre, is currently in rehearsal for “Four Saints in Three Acts,” directed by Frank Galati, for Chicago Opera Theatre. A singer with drama and dancing credits, she just made her first TV commercial for the Illinois Lottery.
On a rare evening when the family was together, they and their parents, Eddie, a popular jazz bassist, mother Geraldine, a singer and founder of Jazz Unites, all relished recalling people who flavored their past.
It was a home filled with music, visited by legendary performers of the jazz scene. “I didn’t realize until later how unique our upbringing was,” says Darius, a serious music lover since childhood.
“People like Betty Carter, Zoot Sims, Kenny Burrell and Roy Haynes came to the house to hang out. My father and mother are very un-show biz, very laid-back. I’m probably the most dramatic one.”
Darius studied drama at Whitney Young High School, then continued studies at Columbia College. After “Dreamgirls,” he headed for New York, enrolling in the American Musical and Dramatic Academy there.
Eddie started playing the harmonica as a youngster in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. “I graduated to a ukelele when I was 8, then a guitar, which I played during the Japanese occupation,” he remembers. His father, a newspaper man, was interned for 3 1/2 years. After his father’s release in 1946, the family left for Holland. Continuing with his music during high school and college there, Eddie switched to playing the bass while appearing with a band in Berlin. It’s a change he immediately adapted to.
Retaining a slight Dutch accent, the 64-year-old father recalled his entry into the United States in 1957, sponsored by Chet Baker.
“The business was far less hectic than it is now,” he says. “I had good contacts and worked with Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Dizzy Gillespie, Kai Winding, Miles Davis and Peter, Paul and Mary.”
Geraldine grew up in Newark, N.J., in a home exposed to the arts. She formed a trio with her brother, Andy, and sister, Salome, called “Andy and the Bey Sisters.” The trio traveled abroad and played dates in Chicago at the Playboy Club, the Regal Theatre and the Blue Note.
They were playing at Trudy Heller’s Versailles in New York when Eddie was playing there with Blossom Dearie. Despite Geraldine’s protestations that she would never marry a musician and Eddie’s determination never to marry a singer, they were married in 1962, settling in Chicago in 1968.
“It’s a thrill to see the torch being passed to our kids,” says Geraldine, who has been intimately associated with the jazz scene here, and is a staff member of the Illinois Arts Council.
In 1971 Geraldine appeared in the Chicago production of “Hair.” Seventeen years later Darius was in the cast when the legendary musical returned to the Vic Theatre.
It is rare when the family can appear together, though Aisha appears in the yearly tribute to Marian Anderson arranged by her mother. Eddie has not been able to catch Darius’ performance in “Moe,” but Aisha and Geraldine were enthusiastic about it.
Darius confesses that he is still star-struck. “Once when I was at Motown in Los Angeles, Stevie Wonder walked in and I wanted to approach him, but I was tongue-tied,” he recalled. “I am absolutely floored by him.
“I met Muddy Waters before he died. He did the very first jazz concert that my mother produced at the South Shore Country Club.”
Meeting Dizzy Gillespie, who recently died, was another thrill for him. When Darius wanted to replace the family’s dog, he surprised his father with a black Labrador retriever and named him “Dizzy.”
