Missing Judy
Rick Kogan’s column on the departure of jazz pianist and singer Judy Roberts (Sidewalks, May 13) evoked a twinge of sadness that really caught me off guard. The first night I heard Judy in The Salon was the night that I met the love of my life, Teri. The setting and the music were simply magical. Teri and I returned often to enjoy Judy’s music, but we had not done so in a while and I was unaware of her being “unceremoniously booted” by the InterContinental (what were they thinking?) or her replacement gig at Coq d’Or. She will be missed, and we’ll definitely raise a toast in her honor.
ROB WINDOFFER / Willow Springs
JUDY ROBERTS’ LEAVING is a shame, and there is a pattern to it. I was unceremoniously booted from playing piano at the Ritz-Carlton hotel this year after playing steadily there for 17 years. The hotel ownership decided they “weren’t in the music business anymore.”
It’s not Judy’s loss, as Rick Kogan points out, it’s the city’s. There is definitely a bottom-line mood here when it comes to music.
Countless times hotel guests in the past few years have recounted to me how little live music there was downtown.
When I started playing in the city in the early ’80s, there were two after-hours places that musicians gathered at to jam at the north end of Michigan Avenue. There is nothing like that now in the whole city. This used to be known as a music town.
CHRIS MARTIN / Chicago
A doctor’s dream
Thanks for an inspiring article on Dr. Donald Hopkins (“Doctor without Borders,” May 13) and his efforts to eliminate guinea worm in Africa. I hope there will be more articles about those who have a dream and act on it.
JAN GRAEFEN / Sycamore
Thrill ride
In his May 6 Sidewalks column, Rick Kogan wrote that he had yet to meet someone who rode the elevated trains for fun.
When some friends from Michigan came to visit recently, I asked if there was anything special they would like to see. One of them said she wanted to ride on the “L,” so we rode from the Loop to Evanston and back and she was grinning the entire ride.
GERTIE SCHAAPMAN / Chicago
Rich and poor
The outdoor parties described in your Gardens & Homes issue (May 6) put me in mind of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s observation: “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”
Brats and burgers anyone?
LOUIS B. RAFFEL / Northbrook
THE FEATURE “Outdoor Suite” was a very disappointing pictorial. Not only extremely conservative, but unimaginative. And the flower choices-from the Jewel-Osco, perhaps?
PATRICK SCANLAN / Oak Park
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