President Roger Webb called the meeting of the Amherst Club to order at noon on Tuesday, January 20th 2015, and welcomed us all Phyllis Lehrer congratulated Vice-President Andrea Battle whose daughter Professor Whitney Battle Baptiste figured on the front page of the Daily Hampshire Gazette as a panelist on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in Northampton, and on the local TV news as a celebrant at the Amherst MLK Jr. Day events. Zina Tillona reminded the club that recent discussion has suggested that we should revisit and vote on the board decision to not invite salespeople as speakers. Snapshot: Judy Brooks refreshed the membership with a poetic look back at the year past, choosing to dwell on its best moments and drawing strength from nature. She ended with a wish for a very happy 2015 for us all. Raffle: Miriam Dayton won the wine and Tony Papirio the $10. Speaker: Claude Tellier introduced our speaker, the distinguished Grammy-winning saxophonist Charles Neville, the second oldest of the famous New Orleans band The Neville Brothers, who spoke amusingly and touchingly about his exiting and dangerous life as a Black musician in the Jim Crow south. Charles has the most diverse musical background of all the Brothers. His experience on saxophone has included rhythm & blues, funk, jazz, be-bop, popular and even American Indian music. He cites as influences Louis Jordan, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Professor Longhair. He is also the only brother that lived away from New Orleans for long periods of time, making places like New York, Memphis, Oregon and now western Massachusetts his home. Your scribe, Linda Honan |
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