I’ve been listening to my favorite station, WPFW 89.3, and my favorite DJ, Rusty Hassan. Rusty_Hassan

When I first moved to DC many years ago, hearing Rusty was like getting a taste of home. A soothing voice, a great collection of music, and an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz — what more could you ask?

 

Steal-the-Show-a-mysteryMy fictional private eye Willis Gidney seems to like Rusty too. In STEAL THE SHOW, my second PI novel, Gidney is committing a felony while thinking of listening to Rusty on his drive home. Talk about a fan!

Then I met Rusty at Takoma Park’s Jazzfest. I sent him a copy of STEAL THE SHOW and he invited me to come to his show. That’s tonight.

So what’ll we do? Despite my suggestion that I play the spoons while reciting the Constitution, Rusty said we’ll talk about jazz and the PI novel, I’ll read from one of the Gidney books, and then we’ll play some songs from the Willis Gidney Quintet.  This group consists of Steve Mencher, John Shepherd, David Schulman, Alex Martin, and yours truly.

wgq

You didn’t know Willis has his own band? Not many fictional characters do, but the WGQ is a terrific jazz band that’s playing this weekend at the New Deal Cafe.   C’mon down, if you like solid jazz from great players!

Published by Thomas Kaufman

Thomas Kaufman is the author of STEAL THE SHOW and DRINK THE TEA, which won the PWA/St Martin's Press Best First PI Novel Competition. He is also an Emmy award- winning motion picture director/cameraman. Since graduating from the University of Southern California with an MFA in Film Production, he has worked as a Director of Photography on documentary, commercial, and fiction films. In addition to working as director/cameraman for National Geographic and Discovery Channels, Mr Kaufman has also shot documentaries for British Broadcasting Corporation, WGBH, WNET, and Academy Award-winners Mark Jonathan Harris, Charles Guggenheim, and Barbara Koppel.

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