Mike Dawes

Although I’ve let my Rolling Stone subscription lapse — My take: I tried to stay cool but the magazine chose to abandon the Boomers. — I was a faithful reader for over thirty years.  Don’t ask me why I remember it, but as a college student, I was struck by a 1975 RS issue that paid post-mortem tribute to music critic Ralph Gleason.  The article featured scores of jazz and rock musicians weighing in on Gleason’s greatness.  A lot of the contributors seemed to me to be stuck on their own self-importance.

Then in the midst of all these puff-up commentaries there stood a single four-word sentence uttered by the biggest player of all, Miles Davis, who simply said, “Bring my friend back.”

That’s how I feel.  While I can’t improve on Miles Davis’ synopsis, I can offer a few thoughts for those who were unable to attend  the poignant memorial service held at Trinity College, Mike’s alma mater.  Laura and I were honored to speak at the service and I thought I would post our offerings on this blog this week.  Stay tuned, Malcolm