[Dixielandjazz] Re: [Dixielandjazz]Brian Shanley service

[briantowers]

A beautiful piece of writing - thanks for sharing it with us.  Wish I had
known him too - sounds like a real human being.
Regards
Brian Towers,
Hot Five Jazzmakers, Toronto, Canada
Band web site:            http://hotfivejazz.tripod.com
Newsletter:                  http://hotfivejazz.tripod.com/TJM
Trillium Jazz Cruise:  http://jazz_cruise0.tripod.com
Photo Gallery:
http://hotfivejazz.tripod.com/hotfivejazzmakersinaction/index.html
----- Original Message -----
From: "Captain Rapture" <yup1275@pacbell.net>
To: <dixielandjazz@ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 01, 2002 9:00 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Re: [Dixielandjazz]Brian Shanley service


>
>
> Monday, 10 a.m., Catholic church on Church St, Lodi.
>
> Brian was an excellent musician and a pretty good friend.
> We both seemed to want more but didn't know how.
> Rosemarie, his wife was very devoted. Their home was
> beautiful and the flowers in their back garden were
> magnificent.
>
> With Hangtown, he wrote many fine arrangements, the best
> being the Mooche. Stealin Apples was another. Brian turned
> out a lot of good stuff.
>
> Brian drank 4 beers an hour. He was miserable. Morning gigs in
> Stockton he'd be ill. He had a death ray like Benny Goodman and
> the band suffered. Brian would slam his clarinet down on the
> brass stand he carried and stomp off. Such a sweet guy - and such
> unhapppiness.
>
> When he swung, his left foot tapped like on a clock face, eleven/one/
> eleven/one.  When a cork seal would leak, he'd furiously blow
> cigarette smoke through the horn to seal it up. When I took a solo,
> he would politely turn to listen - a nice touch.
>
> I adored the guy and we were proud to play with him. He truly swung.
> What better praise, eh? He was very much a human being and I have
> missed him for years.
>
> The cancer took away any ability to play and it bothered him to hear
> from us old cronies - which didn't leave much room for contact.
> I think he spent a lot of time off my himself in the house, listening
> to his record collection.
>
> May he rest in peace.