[Dixielandjazz] Westy Westenhofer's Passing

[Michael Woitowicz]

DJML Friends:

It's with sadness that I learned from Bob Ringwald's forwarded message 
that Westy Westenhofer has passed.

Although not a close friend, I did meet him several times. Once at a 
concert in suburban Chicago, IL when he was performing with Banjomania. 
I took my similar band, the Banjo Barons Ragtime Band, from Milwaukee 
and made a pilgrimage to hear them play -- even had a photo taken of the 
two bands together. I next saw and talked to West at a Jazz festival a 
year or so later -- the Bix in Davenport, IA if I remember correctly. I 
mentioned the earlier meeting to him and he remembered it.

I didn't know he had health problems. Ironically, just last weekend I 
was playing a cassette tape of the Palm Springs Yacht club that I had 
purchased from him a number of years ago.

What a great musician, both on upright string bass and sousaphone. He 
will be sadly missed in the musical world.

RIP old buddy!

Mike "Banjoman" Woitowicz

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