Would you say the same thing to your 50-year-old self?

Yeah, pretty much. “Enjoy life, be good to people…” I would also say this to my 99 year old self.

What is your exercise routine?

A: Unfortunately this summer has been so hot that I haven’t done it, but I normally walk three days a week, an hour each time, a three kilometer walk in the park, and it’s just beautiful . I really miss it and will come back to it if the weather gets civil. I always do chest flies with a two pound weight in each hand, 80 each time. I haven’t done yoga in a while, but I have done it for 10 years or more.

Liner notes for an album produced and recorded by Baumer at Criteria Studios in Miami. He drew caricatures of himself and his wife Lynn.

Courtesy of Rey Baumel

Is there a food you can’t live without?

I don’t know if you’d call it food. The product is called Kozy Shack and it’s chocolate pudding. When I was a kid in Coney Island, I was coming home from school. I would eat spaghetti, which I love, and then my mom would give me Kozy Shack. It’s the exclamation point at the end of dinner.

What is the most interesting thing you have learned recently?

I think deep down there is still so much I don’t know.

What is your social life like these days?

It’s not much because I don’t walk. When I walk, there is a little community there, not counting the squirrels and birds. I meditate with a guru once a week. And then there’s the Mac Users group, it’s a Zoom call once a month. I have been very active in my church community, but now I do it almost every Sunday. I have been a member of the congregation for over 75 years. Oh, and there’s a band that I’m a part of that’s been together, I think it’s been 15, 16 years. We share the fact of having lost a loved one to cancer… It’s called The Merry Widows. (Baumel’s wife, Lynn, died of cancer in 2008.I)

Baumel and his wife Lynn, shown around 1950, performed together after meeting just after World War II. TOP RIGHT: Baumel holding bongos as a member of a Puerto Rican show band called “Khaki Kaballeros” in 1945; BOTTOM RIGHT: Lynn playing with Baumel’s band at Nippersink, a Wisconsin resort town in 1953.

Courtesy of Rey Baumel

You are hosting a dinner for four guests. It could be anyone living or dead. Who would you choose?

My wife of 59 years, because she was such a part of me and such a wonderful person. Not only beautiful to look at, but beautiful to talk to, such a wonderful attitude. Besides (the late violinist and conductor Herbert Baumel). He was my mentor. Another person would be a musician I never met, but was always fascinating, and who happened to be a colleague of my brother when they went to the Curtis Institute of Music together: Lenny Bernstein. He was an incredible talent. And finally, someone I really appreciate today and whom I also had the privilege of following at the Chicago Playboy Club: George Carlin. I mean, you watch a George Carlin special and boy, it’s like he gave it today. This foursome sitting at dinner would be pretty chaotic, but hey, chaos is so nice from time to time.