The Valley was fortunate to be graced by the music and generous nature of “Horn Man” Charles Neville for the last two decades until he died April 26 at age 79 at his home in Huntington.
Neville was a Grammy Award-winning jazz and rhythm and blues saxophonist who was born in New Orleans and began his career in the 1950s by playing with musical giants including B.B. King, Allen Toussaint, Fats Domino and Jimmy Reed. Neville was best known for performing with siblings Aaron, Art and Cyril when they formed the Neville Brothers band in the 1970s and played at major events such as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
In recent years, local audiences appreciated Neville’s music at smaller venues like Look Park in Florence, where he often played with singer-songwriter Roger Salloom at his annual free summer concert. Salloom introduced himself to Neville more than a decade ago at the Northampton post office.
The two ended up recording three albums together. Salloom described Neville as an “amazing musician,” adding that “he was kind, he was gentle, he was forgiving, and he was at peace with himself.”
And Neville loved to be in front of audiences, no matter their size. “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,” said Salloom. “His playing would be exactly the same. He loved to perform for people.”
After Neville disclosed in January that he had pancreatic cancer, a tribute and fundraising concert was held Feb. 3 at the Academy of Music in Northampton. It drew a mix of nationally known artists and local musicians.
Neville was a mentor to younger musicians in the Valley, including those at the Springfield Community Music Center. He also talked at schools and elsewhere about his experiences as a musician in the segregated South.
“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,’” Salloom said. “But he didn’t hold a grudge, he was never bitter … he was just a gentle, giving person.”
Neville’s presence here during his final years will long be appreciated by music lovers.
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Kudos to the partnership between the Eileen Fisher women’s clothing store in Northampton and the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School in South Hadley that resulted in recycling used clothing and giving students a chance to be fashionably creative.
“We found out that a huge amount of clothing was ending up in landfills, so we started an initiative called Renew,” said Jenn Schreiner, the events coordinator for the Northampton store. “We sell gently used clothing in the back, (but) some of it is unsellable, and those items were donated to the students to make the clothing” that was displayed during a fashion show April 27.
Some of the recycled fashions were displayed by student models who walked down a “runway” cleared in the middle of the store, while other designs were displayed on mannequins.
Nathan Herman-Zierlein, 15, a freshman studying costume design at PVPA, was among the students who showed off their work. “I like to take something that is very simple and make it different or new,” he said. “I like to look for a direction that people have done in the past and take pieces from there and incorporate it into a new design.”
We like the creative reuse of old clothing.
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The generosity of an anonymous donor allowed the Northampton Recovery Center to move into its own quarters at 2 Gleason Plaza, where it can offer expanded programs supporting victims of drug abuse.
The center last week moved out of the Edwards Church, where it had used space since opening in October 2016. It offers group meetings and other activities, such as yoga, writing groups and meditation, for anyone seeking recovery from addiction.
The new home is next to the office of the Northwestern district attorney, which pays the salary of the center’s interim executive director, Lynn Ferro. “We can expand our hours and will be able to provide so many more programs,” she said. “Everybody is so excited about it.”
A big thank you to the donor — whoever you are.