Charles Neville, the legendary jazz and R&B saxophonist of the renowned Neville Brothers, made the Valley his home for the last part of his life.
And just as his music touched many across the country when the New Orleans-based Neville Brothers won widespread acclaim, so did Neville’s music — and his personal charm — touch many in the Valley.
Neville, who died Thursday at age 79 of pancreatic cancer, was not only an “amazing musician,” said Northampton singer-songwriter Roger Salloom. “He was kind, he was gentle, he was forgiving, and he was at peace with himself.”
And, added Salloom, who had played with Neville for over 10 years and recorded three albums with him, “He was smart as a whip.”
Neville, a Grammy award-winning player known as “The Horn Man,” was born in New Orleans in 1938 and moved to the Valley about 20 years ago from New York City. He lived in Huntington with his wife, Kristin, and their sons Khalif and Talyn — both, like their father, musicians. In addition to his brothers, Aaron, Art and Cyril, he is survived by a daughter, Charmaine, a singer who lives in New Orleans.
Memorial arrangements are still pending.
Salloom said he introduced himself over 10 years ago to Neville when he ran into him in the Northampton post office; the two soon became friends, bonding over music, martial arts, books and a dislike of conservative politics.
“Charles could play anything you asked him to,” Salloom said. “He could really set the mood, and he would force the other horn players to rise to his standard.”
But as good a musician as Neville was, added Salloom, he was never an egoist hung up on his playing.
“I’ve seen him play for 2,000 people, and I’ve seen him play for 20 people, where maybe three people were actually listening … his playing would be exactly the same. He loved to perform for people.”
Kyle Homstead of Laudable Productions, whose Easthampton company produced a sold-out benefit show in February for Neville and his family at Northampton’s Academy of Music, said the concert generated donations from all across the country from people who had been touched by Neville’s music.
“People would donate $50 or $20 or whatever it was, and they would share these stories about how they’d met Charles maybe outside a show, or they’d heard his music and felt moved by it,” Homstead said. “I can’t think of a better example that shows the impact and power of music to touch people’s lives.”
Indeed, one of the people touched by Neville’s music was Barack Obama. Homstead said the former president sent a personal letter to Neville just a few weeks ago, thanking him for his music and sending his condolences to him and his family for his illness.
Homstead and his partner, artist Cassandra Holden, are close to the Neville family, and Homstead said this is a difficult time for all of them. But he was struck by how many musicians visited and played for Neville, first during a hospital stay in Boston and then in his Huntington home, before he died.
“His personal form of therapy was music, and right up to the end, people were making music for him,” said Homstead. “It meant so much to him.”
The benefit show at the Academy of Music also drew an impressive lineup of musicians from the Valley and from farther afield, including Aaron and Charmaine Neville as well as another saxophone legend, Branford Marsalis, who grew up in New Orleans hearing the Neville Brothers perform.
Marsalis, who lives in North Carolina, told the Gazette at the time that when he learned Charles Neville was sick, he got in touch with Homstead and asked to be part of the show. “I ain’t a doctor, but I can do this,” he said. “When you’re from New Orleans, you’re family.”
And singer/multi-instrumentalist Mitch Chakour of Amherst, who was also part of the show. recalled playing with Neville and being struck by his combination of patience and his passion for music.
“He’s such a sweet, gentle guy,” Chakour said at the time. “He’s kind of got this aura around him of calm. But he’s still got that fire in him, too, and you see it, you hear it, when he plays.”
Bassist Guy DeVito of Sunderland, who also played at the concert, called it a “humbling, joyful, and enlightening experience … Although everyone involved in the production was aware of the crucial reality of Charles’ medical situation, the vibe backstage and onstage was always upbeat, positive and professional, just as Charles had always carried himself in his life and music as witnessed by me.”
Salloom was also struck by Neville’s forgiving nature. “He grew up in the Jim Crow South, with segregation and violence (against blacks), he spent time in prison where he saw people killed in front of him. But he didn’t hold a grudge, he was never bitter … he was just a gentle, giving person.”
In addition to his playing, Neville mentored many younger musicians in the area, such as at the Springfield Community Music Center. For over 10 years, he also gave talks at schools and other settings about his experiences playing music in the segregated South.
Marilyn Goldman, who does publicity for the Amherst Women’s Club, was a friend of Neville and invited him to speak at the club a few years ago. After the talk, she says, one audience member asked him how he had kept such a positive outlook on life in view of the entrenched racism he had dealt with.
“He said ‘If I didn’t change my attitude, I wouldn’t have survived to be here today,’” Goldman recalled. “He was just the sweetest guy in the world.”
In an interview with the Gazette in 2015, Neville said he liked sharing those stories as one way to show how race relations had improved over the years, with music serving as an important means for overcoming barriers.
Salloom said he continued to speak with Neville on the phone until close to the end; Neville worked with him last fall on Salloom’s new album until he got too sick to play.
But a video for one of the songs from the disc, “Don’t Let My Country Wash Away,” features some images of Neville (and other musicians and personalities) that Salloom says will be part of the memories he’ll hold of his friend.
“I’m really going to miss him,” he said.
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.
Anyone interested in making a donation can contact the Charles Neville Legacy Project at celebratingcharles.org. Proceeds go to curate the thousands of items, musical recordings, artwork and artifacts that make up the Charles Neville Legacy. Lara Lavi, the Neville family’s attorney, can be also be contacted at Lara@medialawgroup.net and 206.551.9847