Schackman memoir captures musical life with Nina Simone

By Norm Wheeler

Sun contributor

There is nothing like playing music with an accomplished and brilliant professional guitar player like Al Schackman. For the past 10 years I have been lucky enough to sit in with him, Chris Skellenger, and Patrick Niemisto every summer at Cherry Republic and Boonedocks in Glen Arbor, or at Ketch 22 in Arcadia, when Schackman visits Northern Michigan from his home near Wagon Mound, NM.

Schackman is almost 93 years old, and he spent 43 amazing years as Nina Simone’s guitarist, music director, and confidant. He captures his remarkable musical life in his new memoir, Me, My Guitar, & Nina Simone. As detailed on the book jacket, Schackman “travelled the world with her, and experienced numerous adventures and amazing musical performances, including unveiling to the public Nina’s “Mississippi Goddamn” at the Selma March (in 1965). His stories give true insight into her brilliance as well as her struggles with mental health challenges and relationships.

Schackman has also written fascinating, often amusing stories about his own musical career. He grew up playing in Black Brooklyn jazz clubs as a teenager and was known as the “Skinny White Kid.” He was invited to accompany Billie Holiday on her song “Fine and Mellow” when he was 16. Although he is known primarily as a jazz guitarist, Schackman plays nearly every genre of music and many instruments.

The jacket blurb continues, “Al was lead guitarist for Harry Belafonte for five years and travelled with him and Martin Luther King on fundraising tours. He was a first call session player for Atlantic and Columbia records in New York, consequently recording with various artists from Neil Sedaka to Ben E. King to Sarah Vaughn. He was on the folk scene in Greenwich Village when Dylan was a young artist, and he played with an Armenian band in New York nightclubs in the 1950s.”

I never tire of hearing Al Shackman’s stories from those New York days. When I told him how much I admired trumpeter Clark Terry (who played with Duke Ellington, among others), Shackman told me how they worked together in the studios, and what a hilarious and friendly guy Clark was. When I once recited a Shel Silverstein poem on stage, he said, “Man, I really miss Shel. We had some great times back in the day.” He knew everybody!

But Shackman’s book is more than just name-dropping. When he was just 16, Al was sitting in with Rector Bailey’s band at Town Hill backing up Jackie “Moms” Mabley, the Black stand-up comedienne. When she saw him she said, “DAT A WHITE CHILE! Chile, you so pale and skinny. You go home and tell you mama give you some chitlins ’n greens and some chocolate milk so you get some color in you.” Later Al, Wynton Kelly, and Duke Pearson were drafted into Special Services during the Korean War. At one point they all backed up country star “Corporal” Faron Young. Shackman also sat in with the Sonny Stitt band during that time.

He later spent some time at Big Sur on the west coast and around Hollywood, where he got to know James Coburn and James Garner, and during those days Al had what he calls “an intimate and complex relationship” with actress Kim Novak. Needless to say, there were a lot of adventures for Al Schackman in those days, from hanging out with Hollywood actors, to touring around the Jim Crow south with Black musicians. And then he toured the world with Nina Simone! Schackman’s book is full of fascinating memories, countless challenges, and many musical triumphs.

Al Shackman’s connection to the local music scene started 10 years ago when he and his wife Ginny walked into the Douglas Valley Winery just off M-22 north of Manistee. Paul Koss and Chris Skellenger were playing, and Koss just happened to have his mandolin-sized Octave 12-string electric guitar with him.

“Al came up and asked about that instrument,” Paul recalls, “and when he started playing it, we went Whoa! He sat in on some tunes playing that 12-string, and it was immediately obvious that we were seeing something remarkable. We got him involved in gigs up here after that, all because I had that odd instrument with me that day. We knew right away that, as Patrick Niemisto would say, ‘this dude’s a CAT!’ (meaning, lots of talent and big skills).”

The Shackmans are headed back to Wagon Mound, but they may return in October to close up their cottage on Portage Lake near Onekama, so stay tuned for another chance to see Al and hear his magical guitar playing in a month or so. His memoir Me, My Guitar, & Nina Simone (A.G. Dunewood Publishing Co., Wagon Mound, NM) can be ordered through your local Leelanau bookstore or Horizon Books in Traverse City.