When friends and family look back on memories with Raphael “Ralph” Schaeffer, they see him tapping his fingers to beats, firing up bandmates with pre-gig pep talks and immersing his 2-year-old daughter in music.
Schaeffer, a 31-year-old drummer from Harvey, died in a crash on DuSable Lake Shore Drive along the Gold Coast last week, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
He was driving back from a gig to pick up his daughter, Z Schaeffer, who was staying with her mom, Brittany Smith. Smith had texted him around 2:50 a.m. and got a reply at 2:55 a.m. saying he was on his way.
Less than 30 minutes later, Smith received a call from Schaeffer’s mom saying he was in the hospital, Smith told the Sun-Times.
Light snow was falling along a soggy DuSable Lake Shore Drive early Thursday as Schaeffer drove south in a 2016 Honda HR-V with his 29-year-old brother sitting shotgun.
As they passed East Schiller Street at 3:08 a.m., Schaeffer glanced at his cellphone, and when his brother reminded him to pay attention, he lost control and hit a median. Schaeffer, who wasn’t wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the SUV, police said.
Schaeffer was an established percussionist on the local music scene, Smith said. He loved hip-hop, toured with rapper Smino and worked with Grammy-nominated R&B musician Eryn Allen Kane. He once worked with Chicago’s Chance the Rapper, too.
“Whatever he put his hands to when it came to music, he always succeeded at it,” said Smith, who was engaged to Schaeffer before separating recently.
Schaeffer’s first tour was with Kane. He was her music director and they had played together for nearly 10 years.
“He’s just a big part of my existence, my musical existence,” Kane said. “He’s like a big teddy bear. ... He’s just equal parts funny and super serious about his craft.”
Schaeffer started drumming from a young age, banging on anything he could get his hands on as a baby, according to his older sister Gwen Schaeffer. As a boy, Raphael Schaeffer played gospel music at church, which later influenced his arranging style, bandmates and friends said.
In high school, he would often gather with a group of friends and rehearse, serving as the group’s leader, said longtime friend AJ Jones, who will remember Raphael Schaeffer as not only a great drummer but a Los Angeles Lakers superfan and a “Kobe fanatic.”
“Ralph showed us a lot of things. The main thing I learned from him was the creative mind,” Jones said. “He had to become legendary.”
Raphael Schaeffer began playing gigs in the city when he was a teenager, and when he brought the younger Jones with him, he taught him how to use the CTA and altered plans if Jones couldn’t get into clubs due to his age.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” Jones said. “We thought we had way more time.”
For Raphael Schaeffer, who was shuffled between foster homes in his early childhood, music was a refuge, his sister said.
“He nourished himself,” Gwen Schaeffer said. “Foster kids go through a lot, that was like his therapy.”
Raphael Schaeffer’s daughter, Z, brought out a different side of the drummer, who typically went through life with quiet confidence. He “became a family man,” said Schenay Mosley, who sang with Raphael Schaeffer after meeting through mutual musician friends.
“I was there to see how he was just excited to be a dad, especially growing up without one,” Gwen Schaeffer said. “He was excited: ‘I can be the dad that I didn’t have.’”
Z is showing signs of inheriting her dad’s personality, and it was important to him to teach her music, singing to her and playing the piano, Smith said. “Like Someone in Love” by Bill Evans was the soundtrack to many memories featuring Raphael Schaeffer.
“She’s only 2 years old, she’s only 2,” Smith said. “She doesn’t know what’s going on right now. I just don’t know how it’s going to affect her when she realizes her dad hasn’t been coming around.”
