CHET SISK GREETS a snowy-morning guest with a hot cup of tea, a cold glass of orange juice, and a three-cheese quiche filled with curry, cumin, ginger and jalapeños – his own recipe.
Better known as Wynton Parker, the evening drive-time deejay on KUVO 89.3-FM, Sisk is a Denver radio man who imparts recipes and wine tidbits on the air, and promotes culinary events on behalf of the station. But getting down to the business of finishing his new home is less pressing to Sisk, who recently released the self-help book “Seven Steps to Success I Learned From Homeless People” (Stratford, $15.95).
The book reveals the author’s redemption story:
He launched a high-earning Internet marketing agency in the 1990s. Then, the dot-com bust and subsequent recession hit. Hard. Sisk lost his clients, his livelihood, his property, his marriage and, ultimately, his spirit. The former TV reporter used downtime between jobs to volunteer at the Samaritan House homeless shelter in Denver. There, during an especially low point in his own life, Sisk found he had plenty in common with the downtrodden.
“The most common misconception about the homeless is that they’re not smart. ‘If they were smart like me, they wouldn’t be homeless,”‘ he says. “But I started to meet people who were smart and bright.”
Many, he says, had been financially crippled by catastrophic illness. “Someone in their family was at death’s door. They had to make a choice between paying the mortgage or paying for that person’s treatment.”
The deejay relates this story while sitting in a living room with no television. His chocolate brown sofa – one of the few pieces of furniture in the house – faces the kitchen where Sisk loves to experiment with new recipes. There, a bottle of Little Feet Merlot from the Colorado vineyard Balistreri Wine sits in a fancy glass caddy on the counter.
Sisk’s book is the first in a series of “Chicken Soup”-like titles planned for the next seven years. The series resulted from his shelter experiences.
“It didn’t seem right to me that only shiny white guys could talk about success,” he says of the self-help publishing world. “To me, it seemed like the people who caught the most hell in their lives had a lot to say about what works and what doesn’t.”
He chose this house because its semirural surroundings remind him of the Iowa town where he grew up. The place also has enough space for his sons – 16 and 19.
Kwanzaa ornaments dangle over Sisk’s fireplace. Framed etchings uncovered at the Denver Black Arts Festival hang on the wall: Tony Williams, Sonny Rollins, Carmen McRae and Charles Mingus. All of them are Sisk’s muses in life and music – besides his family.
“He brings such a depth and enjoyment of the music to the station,” says KUVO president Florence Hernandez-Ramos. “And that smooth, sexy voice. He attracts female listeners like crazy.”
On air, Sisk is low-key but engaging, as though he’s sitting in your living room, having a conversation about jazz. His diction is colloquial. He addresses listeners as “friends,” and becomes audibly excited about the music and its practitioners.
For five years, Sisk has spent time away from radio teaching Thursday night life-skills classes at the Samaritan House. The Rev. John Lager of the Samaritan House says people like him are ideal volunteers because they’re passionate about what they do, and compassionate toward the shelter’s population.
“This is not as much about teacher and pupil as it is about … solidarity and brotherly love,” Lager says. “If we don’t have that sense of reflection and clarity, we’re all doomed to repeat our past.”
In October, Sisk was nominated for a “9 Who Cares” Award. As a result of that television spot, a representative from the Saddle Creek development in Aurora contacted Sisk to offer help finding his new home.
“It’s very bright here,” the deejay says of the house, where he often records his shows and then transmits them to the KUVO station in Five Points. “And affordable. That helps.”
His bookshelf features an edited selection of spiritual and motivational titles. Some were recommended by his good friend, Denver storyteller Opalanga Pugh. Others were suggestions from a spiritual teacher.
“My co-workers are always like, ‘Man, you are such a Boy Scout,”‘ Sisk says. “I have to be. It doesn’t mean that I don’t get mad, but I don’t talk about somebody or curse him out. I just process things differently.”
The books share space with African emblems and family photos. Sisk says he enjoyed a placid upbringing in Waterloo, Iowa. His parents ran a record store there – one reason songs are like memories from a childhood scrap:
His first fight: James Brown’s “Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing.”
First date: The Moments’ “Look at Me (I’m in Love) Stop, Look, Listen (to Your Heart).”
High school graduation: McFadden and Whitehead’s “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.”
First job: Mike & the Mechanics’ “The Living Years.”
Sisk’s tightknit, churchgoing parents opened their record store in the late 1960s. His father put Sisk on to jazz.
“Some people retell their lives through trauma or world events,” he says. “I always told mine through songs.”
Staff writer Elana Ashanti Jefferson can be reached at 303-820-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com.
Bulking up on music
Songs are like snapshot memories for Wynton Parker. The KUVO-89.3 FM jazz deejay, whose real name is Chet Sisk, lists the albums he could not live without:
All jazzed up
“A Love Supreme,” John Coltrane: “An essential album for anyone who’s on a spiritual journey.”
“Kind of Blue,” “Circle in the Round” and “Bitches Brew,” all by Miles Davis: “If you don’t have those, I don’t know if you can call yourself a jazz fan.”
“Mingus Ah Um,” Charles Mingus
“Hot Fives and Hot Sevens,” Louis Armstrong
“Ellington at Newport 1956,” Duke
Ellington: “One of the greatest live recordings ever.”
Hip-hop and you don’t stop
“The Score,” The Fugees: “That was groundbreaking.”
“It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back,” Public Enemy
“Illmatic,” Nas
“The Chronic,” Dr. Dre
“The Sugar Hill Gang,” self-titled: “You just gotta have it.”
