Back
row, L-R: Larry Waldman (manager),
Leonard 'Lewsh' Shaw
Middle row, L-R: Greg Baert, Seymour
'Mojo" Koblin, Laivy Koffman
Front row, L-R: Dave Garber, Sandy
Chochinov
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Mojo was drummer Seymour
Koblin who hailed from River
Heights. The other players - Sandy
Chochinov on bass, keyboard and sax player
Leonard 'Lewsh' Shaw, guitarist Dave
Garber, and Laivy Koffman on sax - hailed
from West Kildonan. Chochinov cites
Greg Baert (harmonica) as the key blues
instigator. "Greg turned m on to so
much music I'd never heard before, blues,
jazz, Miles Davis," notes Chochinov.
"I had never heard Muddy Waters or Chicago
blues before."
Baert's own introduction to the blues came
via an unlikely source, "My mother was a
jazz and big band singer so I heard all
this great music from the time I was a
little kid," he states. "She would
play these records and sing to them.
A lot of it was kind of boogie woogie
stuff. She loved Louis Jordan's jump
blues. So this tuff was all around
me." Baert picked up the harmonica
in junior high school.
The Nighthawks rehearsed in a second floor
room at 90 Albert Street it the Exchange
District. They made their debut at a
free gig at the YMHA before going on to
play coffeehouses. "Coffeehouses
were fun to play because they were smaller
and more intimate," Sandy Chochinov
remembers. "My fondest memory is
playing Get Together '71 downtown when
they blocked off the street." There
were several Get Together evets in
subsequent years, mixing arts and crafts,
food, live music and businesses with
stalls selling their wares.
The band relocated to Toronto in late 1972
where Chochinov, Garber and Shaw backed
former Winnipeg rock singer Dianne
Heatherington. Before
splitting up, the Nighthawks placed an ad
on the wall of a Toronto music
store. Former Ronnie Hawkins backup
singer Beverly D'Angelo responded.
"She was great," recalls Baert. "We
rehearsed with her for two weeks then she
got a gig with a touring Godspell
troupe." D'Angelo went on to success
as an actress in the National Lampoon
movies.
John Einarson
Excerpt from Heart of Gold: A History
of Winnipeg Music 2021
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