It is great sadness I read yesterday that Herbie Mann had passed away.


I had the privilege of hanging out with Herbie Mann at his home in Santa Fe,
NM, for a very brief period. In retrospect, way too brief. It was about 2
years ago. I already knew that he was dealing with the prostate cancer -
although when I saw him, he was in remission, and feeling good at the time.

I began by telling Herbie that I got into jazz flute ³by listening to a cat
named Herbie Mann.² He like that! I told him how I first learned to play
³Comin¹ Home Baby,² from his ³Live at the Village Gate² album. He told me a
story about it; how their were 2 bass players on the album; how one of the
bass players had been stoned driving to the gig, and had been stopped by the
police for ³driving too slow!!²

Herbie obviously had quite a few stories to tell. He also told me that he
was planning a ³Three Flutists² concert tour - a la ³The Three Tenors². The
three flutists were going to be Herbie, James Galway, and Ian Anderson! He
wanted Ian Anderson because, he said, Anderson was by far the biggest draw,
because of his Rock Star popularity. Obviously, Herbie got too ill to pull
this off - too bad, it would have been very interesting to see what music
they would play!

It was obvious from talking to Herbie that his real skills were as an
entrepreneur. He was full of ideas, and not afraid to take chances. He had
delved into many different styles of music, even ³world music², long before
it was ³in vogue² to do so. He was also a forward-thinker; he mentioned how
a certain Record Label was wanting to do a ³comeback² series, re-issuing
some of the old recordings. But Herbie wanted to keep moving on, playing new
stuff.

Even when he was dealing with the prostate cancer, Herbie was an
entrepreneur. He wanted to spread the word to other men to go in for early
checkups, and he created a Foundation expressly for that purpose. It was
interesting to see how passionate he was about this Foundation - talking
about the trials and tribulations of running it - even as he himself was
having to deal with his own health issues.

Anyway, these are my short - but sweet - memories of Herbie Mann. The good
news is that his music will live on.

--
Ernie Mansfield
Mansfield Music
--
http://www.mansfieldmusic.com
ernie@...
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Hear my music at:
http://www.mp3.com/erniemansfield