Simon Pocock

Simon Pocock

I had really busy weekend, attending an “enterrement” with the Tempo fanfare band for Serge, one of the original members who played tenor sax. His wife had recently died and he had been depressed for some time. He was 82 years old – but there is no age limit for suicide.  It was a civil burial where you just gather in the cemetery and several people talk about his life, and then there is the ritual of dropping a flower on the coffin. I did learn that he was Jewish, which I never knew, so he must have had a hard time during the war.

The band played cool sombre jazz for an hour in the drizzle and wind. The real emotional bit was when we surrounded the coffin playing  ”Song for my father“.

Later that evening the Perros band did another Verdi gig at Penvanen with the two chorals, and the following day we played at Lannion  at the “salle de Urseline”, which has really bad acoustics, but it went well and there were 8 players from the Lannion band who were very impressed… including the new “chef”  .

It didn’t take me very long to fall out with him. The Lannion band did a concert for “repas pour les ancients” last week and he criticized me for not playing the baritone sax  (very boring part). I had played the alto, which had an important solo which he had given to the flutes and trumpets. So I am “en greve”…  don’t touch my solos.

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