For many years, Jim Stack played jazz at venues around the country, and in Charlotte at Cajun Queen restaurant. He was also the full-time pianist for the Charlotte Country Club. Stack is now 95 and lives in a local assisted-living community where he still plays the piano several nights a week for the dinner crowd. WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn visited him there to talk about his music career; he was also a rocket scientist.
Sitting in the well-appointed lobby of Waltonwood, Stack uses his legs to propel his wheelchair forward. He declines any help, preferring the exercise. Stack leads the way to the spacious ballroom-style dining room where a piano sits in a corner by a window.
“We can sit at one of these tables and do some talking first and then play,” Stack said.
Slim with a full head of white hair, large friendly eyes and a sharp mind, Stack said he's never married. He was a bit of a ladies’ man in the day and has no regrets about staying single. Stack is close to his niece who lives in Monro. She visits often and takes care of his business affairs. Soon, Stack stands up slowly, moves to the piano, and offers me a seat beside him as the dinner crowd starts to arrive.
“My hands are not as sharp as they used to be because I didn't play really for about two years. They had a piano down in Pineville, but I didn't like the piano and I didn’t play it,” Stack said. “I like this one.”
Stack lived at a community in Pineville before Waltonwood, where he has resided for about a year. He starts the dinner hour off with well-known tunes that he plays from memory, such as "Don’t Get Around Much Anymore" and "Moon River."
His fingers move nimbly over the keys but he says he still feels a bit rusty compared to how he played in his younger days.
Stack grew up in Monroe with his father and sister. His mom died when he was young. His love of music came from his dad.
“My father played piano and he played by ear. He played the old songs, and I watched the chords he was playing and I learned songs with him. He asked if I wanted to take some lessons. At some point and I said, ‘yes.’ So I took a few lessons from a lady organist,” Stack said. “But you know, it was just the basics. And I was already playing songs, so I didn't take lessons from her for very long. I kept learning to read music, and I learned harmony and I started buying (classical and jazz) sheet music.”
In high school, Stack says he played with a local band. When he was in college at UNC-Chapel Hill, he played with a combo in nearby Raleigh. Stack left college after a semester.
He was sitting in with bands in Charlotte when he decided to join the Air Force in 1950 to continue his musical career. He played jazz and popular music, mainly on the vibraphone, for the Air Force's official combo band before Lyndon B. Johnson, then a U.S. senator, and President Harry S. Truman and his wife, Bess. Stack went on to play on the East and West coasts with local and recording jazz greats after he left the service.
“One of the best was a man named Clare Fischer. He lived in Los Angeles. He was one of the greats that just didn't get enough attention, you know,” Stack said. “I had my own trio with different people. Clare Fischer played with me some and when he played piano, I would play the vibraphone. I also played with Bill Evans, another great piano player."
Stack enjoyed being a jazz musician, but he also wanted to complete his college degree. In 1954, he saw an ad that said men could apply for summer school at the then-women's Queens College in Charlotte. He was accepted and continued to play jazz while taking classes at Queens as a business major.
But his major quickly changed, and so did his career path.
“They had an attractive math teacher, and she said, why don't you major in math instead of business and I'll be seeing you a lot. I said, ‘OK,’" Stack said. "And as soon as I was about ready to graduate, Douglas Aircraft had a plant in Charlotte. They built rockets and some of the engineers heard me playing jazz and they said 'come have a drink with us.' I said, ‘OK.’
When the engineers learned Stack was a math major, they invited him to work with them on rocket projects in Charlotte, which he accepted. While still playing jazz gigs, Stack went on to work as a rocket engineer on aerospace projects in California, Atlanta and New York, including contributing to the design of the lunar moon module.
“I was in a group that kept up with the weight of this vehicle. And we were trying to save weight because the more it weighed, the more fuel you need. So, we kept NASA informed of what the weight was appearing to be,” Stack said. "When I was new to the moon thing, they gave me a mission plan. I read it and saw something in there that looked wrong to me, and it was. We had maybe a dozen guys or so and none of them had caught that error. It's not that I'm so smart, but I just took the trouble to just (double) check some things."
Stack’s career as an aerospace engineer lasted 13 years, but his jazz career was lifelong. He returned to Charlotte after leaving the space industry and played in the surrounding area, including a stint in Greenville, South Carolina.
“Charlie Spivak was a famous trumpet player and he was playing in a club down there, and his wife called me and asked me if I'd come down there and play with them. She was singing, so I did that for about a year. And I've been up here in Charlotte and Monroe the rest of the time since then,” Stack said.
Stack played in clubs, on a local radio show, and starting in the early 1980s, he played dinner music full-time at the Charlotte Country Club. On his days off he played for many years at the Cajun Queen restaurant with the 7th St. Gator Band.
At the urging of a good friend, Stack began recording his music. Two of the songs of his 2003 CD, "Jazz For A Summer's Day" featured legendary jazz pianist Loonis McGlohon of Charlotte.
“He was well known around the world. He composed songs, and he lived close to where we are now. He was one of my best friends ever,” Stack said.
Stack went on to record three more CDs. His "Memories Of You" recording in 2010 featured fellow Cajun Queen musician saxophonist Doug Henry. Stack says he misses the gigs at the restaurant, but the upstairs stage is hard for him to maneuver. Last October, a friend brought him to Cajun Queen and other friends helped carry him up the stairs to play.
“It was just wonderful,” Stack said. “Some people came that I hadn't seen for a while and you know, I played maybe 30 minutes or something like that. I didn't want to take over the whole thing. I'm sure I'll be just going back sometime."
And until that time comes, Stack can be found playing the piano for fellow residents at his assisted-living home in Cotswold during dinner hours.
