‘Corned beef’ Jew plays the blues

Chesis, whose deep voice winks lazily as clouds and sunlight pass above his shaved head, is the essence of laid back. Despite the morning heat, it might as well be cool midnight in his backyard. Chesis has been mesmerizing an ecstatic public with his undulating blues harmonica for 35 years. Only 16 when he picked up the instrument, he discounts the first four or five years. “I wasn’t very good at it,” he shrugs. “Not that I think I’m good now — but I’ve learned a lot. And there’s always more to learn. It never stops.” Apart from his dad’s preference for the equivalent of KOA Radio, music was absent in the family’s Washington, DC, home. “No stereo. No records. So I bought the first […]