ALEC RAMSDELL, 31 Chicago jazz musician, poet
By Kim Barker Tribune staff reporter
Alec Ramsdell, 31, of Chicago, a jazz musician and poet, died Friday, Oct. 18, in Chicago of a heroin overdose, hours before he was supposed to perform. Although he struggled with addiction for years, Mr. Ramsdell stopped using heroin about four months ago and seemed happy, friends and family said. Mr. Ramsdell rented a practice studio for his piano, started a job as a bicycle messenger and scheduled several shows.
"He seemed the best he had seemed in all the clean-and-sober periods he had," said his mother, Keren, who last saw her son Sept. 15, when he rode his bike to a birthday party for his nephew, bringing a framed drawing of a bunny as a gift. "That's why this was such a surprise. We so many times didn't have hope. This time, we did."
Mr. Ramsdell grew up in Solana Beach, near San Diego. He started playing classical piano when he was age 7. In high school he discovered jazz. He graduated with honors from Northwestern University, where he started writing poetry, and continued playing music, attending the New England Conservatory of Music for a semester.
He was funny and sarcastic and gave good massages, earning for a time the nickname of "California Fingers," friends said. He went to poet camp. He once knocked over a portable toilet with friends and pulled a "no parking" sign out of the ground so he could park without getting a ticket.
"He was one of the most clever, intelligent, funny and sensitive people that I have ever known," said Byron Kerman, who met Mr. Ramsdell in college and lived with him afterward.
Mr. Ramsdell once persuaded friends to help him haul a piano up three flights of stairs. They needed to take the piano apart to make the journey, and Mr. Ramsdell never put it back together, preferring to play it as an experimental instrument. One night, he played songs from the band Queen as friends sang along, until the downstairs neighbor cracked the ceiling in an effort to stop them.
In Chicago, Mr. Ramsdell started experimenting with heroin. He was in and out of rehab in San Francisco and Seattle, and he moved back to Chicago to start over. Mr. Ramsdell seemed to be doing better and then would start using again, friends said.
In January, the Chicago Reader named Mr. Ramsdell one of the up-and-coming jazz players in the city. He looked forward to touring in other cities and countries, friends said.
"His music was going great," his mother said. "We always hoped the music would get him through."
Other survivors include his father, Joe, and brother, Steve.
A wake is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Sunday at a place where he often played jazz, the Hungry Brain, 2319 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago.