Speaking of drummers.

Here's a guy I worked with steady during the last 12 years of his life. He was a close personal friend. I miss the operas we used to see together with his friend, Audrey, at Lincoln Center. He was a great cook. He even had a "garden" (more like a small farm) that he worked. It always gave him so much pleasure to tell his friends to come out there and pick stuff for themselves

Tony practiced evey day till the end. He was a perfectionist in everything he did...without being obnoxious about it. You can't say the same for Buddy Rich....the guy was a monster. Rich went through a pile of guys because he was impossible to get along with.

I learned a lot from Tony. So much for my joke about drummers. Of course Tony was a true percussionist. :>)

According to Audrey, I was the last one to talk to him. He had called me and wanted to talk. Little did I know he was at Sloan-Kettering during that conversation and had 2 days to live. He fooled everyone. No one, except Audrey, knew of his disease right up to the end.

Audrey called me 2 days later and said, We've lost him".

I miss him so much. The second page of the article gives you a bit more about his bio. If you ever get a chance to watch Jerry Lewis' "Ladies Man" you'll see Tony with Harry James' band. The picture in this link is terrible.

http://media.www.signal-online.net/media/storage/paper771/news/2006/09/13/Features/Former.Professor.Jazz.Musician.Fondly.Remembered-2267712.shtml