Chicago bassist Nick Tountas, a longtime fixture on the local scene and a member of the Judy Roberts Trio that rose to prominence with a steady gig at the famous London House in the 1960s, died Friday morning at Glenbrook Hospital in north suburban Glenview.
Tountas, whose gentle wit made endeared him to much of the Chicago jazz community, had suffered a serious heart attack January 16 and had remained in Glenbrook’s Intensive Care Unit since then. It was hoped that after his condition had stabilized, Tountas would be moved to Evanston Hospital for a bypass procedure as early as this past Monday.
He is survived by his second wife, Ann, who reported that he died “surrounded by loved ones” and “not afraid.”
Tountas was in his late 70s. That will come as a shock to those who saw him onstage and presumed, from his manner and energy, that he was at least a decade younger. You have to do the math to realize that it had been close to 45 years since he joined Roberts’s trio; and then you’d have needed to know that he didn’t become a professional musician until he was close to 30.
“He wasn’t even a bass player when I met him,” Roberts recalled from Phoenix, where she makes her home. “He owned a restaurant called the Midas Touch, on Wells Street, and in 1963, I was playing down the street. Nick came in one night and hired me to play in his place. He went out and bought a beautiful new Steinway for his room, and he wasn’t even a musician!
“So I started playing there, and Nick started getting interested in the bass. He would come out of the kitchen, where he’d have 30 steaks cooking, flipping burgers, and he would try to sit in. At first, of course, we had to let him, since he was the owner. But within a year, he was really playing bass. He watched my left hand on the piano, and learned from that.”
By the late 60s, Tountas had given up the restaurant and joined Roberts and drummer Rusty Jones at the London House, which stood at Michigan and Wacker. In the 70s he married and left music for about a decade, working as a stockbroker, but eventually returned to jazz when that first marriage broke up.
As much as his peers appreciated his musical contributions, they spoke even more glowingly of Tountas’s personality. “He was always so giving with his music,” said vocalist Judi Klinsky (who goes by the professional name Judi K), adding a comment typical of many: “He really was one of the nicest people I have known in the business.”
Sometimes, that kind of comment comes to the surface because personality took precedent over musicianship. Not the case here: Tountas was a lovely bass player, assured in his rhythm and authoritative of tone. He got the call to accompany so many local artists by dint of his talent; the fact that he brought a genuinely-nice-guy personality and consistent good humor to the bandstand was a bonus.
Tountas made one album under his own name, titled Hopalong (2004), and appeared on a handful of others; excellent examples of his seamless accompaniment and relaxed solos can be found on Roberts’s album In The Moment and on guitarist Zvonimir Tot’s Travels & Dreams.
“He was the most intuitive player I ever worked with,” said Roberts. “There were other bassists more limber and agile, but he and I had a soul connection with the music – which we developed together as ‘kids’ on Wells Street.”
Funeral arrangements are pending.
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