Eddie Baltimore R.I.P.

Eddie Baltimore R.I.P My sympathies to Eddie's partner Patricia and hundreds of friends - mostly musicians. There have been tributes all over the radio today - what a great impact he had on the Toronto music community. Zoe Chilco has started working on a story for the next MapleBlues. I only met Eddie a few times, and I was looking forward to playing with him at a guitar workshop I was hosting at this year's Winterfolk. Eddie didn't make it to that gig and now I know why... he was deathly ill.

Sorry I didn't make it to his funeral -I'm told there was a couple of hundred players there. I would have been too, even had my suit on, but a computer crisis at the jazz festival office walayed me. I was moved to tears reading the tribute Lance Anderson posted on the Irridescent Music site. Lance said "Even the angels are crying" and Eddie looks positively angelic in that photo with Garth Hudson. Gentle heart, indeed. That's what I'll always remember about Eddie Baltimore.