Anyone who knew and played with Delmar may be welling up inside looking at this tribute. I certainly am. And Kenwood and Rael and Yossi probably have been doing so for years. As my fellow midwestern brother, and fellow short guy, we bonded in the ring of commanding the sacred space we brought with us to New York from ancestors of soul. During our inexplicable bouts with navigating jazz myopia and clueless critics, we laughed all the way to the truth, and made our collaborators shine. Delmar and I lost touch in the last days, as we were working in different areas of the scene. But I certainly have good stories to make you laugh from the bad old days. His humor is as lasting as those penetrating chords he played on our hearts.
Pheeroan, I could’ve gone longer with this tribute. I have a million stories of how hilarious this cat was, how infectious his laugh was. Maybe I’ll post the Q&A interview I did with him from back in the day — 15,000 words of great storytelling. Among other things, he reminisced about jamming with Elvin Jones when he was student at Berklee, saying, “I was just trying to hold on for dear life the whole time!” Numerous late-night hangs with Delmar, who was a member of Jaco’s Hang Dynasty, as he called it. He was a really soulful, loveable cat. Miss him a lot!
Anyone who knew and played with Delmar may be welling up inside looking at this tribute. I certainly am. And Kenwood and Rael and Yossi probably have been doing so for years. As my fellow midwestern brother, and fellow short guy, we bonded in the ring of commanding the sacred space we brought with us to New York from ancestors of soul. During our inexplicable bouts with navigating jazz myopia and clueless critics, we laughed all the way to the truth, and made our collaborators shine. Delmar and I lost touch in the last days, as we were working in different areas of the scene. But I certainly have good stories to make you laugh from the bad old days. His humor is as lasting as those penetrating chords he played on our hearts.
Pheeroan, I could’ve gone longer with this tribute. I have a million stories of how hilarious this cat was, how infectious his laugh was. Maybe I’ll post the Q&A interview I did with him from back in the day — 15,000 words of great storytelling. Among other things, he reminisced about jamming with Elvin Jones when he was student at Berklee, saying, “I was just trying to hold on for dear life the whole time!” Numerous late-night hangs with Delmar, who was a member of Jaco’s Hang Dynasty, as he called it. He was a really soulful, loveable cat. Miss him a lot!