Ev Farey saved my life.

I was twenty-two years old, on my first trip to Europe with a now-legendary band called the Sunset Music Company. People often ask me for the "musical highlights" of my career so far, and I always respond that two of them were playing for Benny Goodman for the last seven months of his life (Dec. 1985-June, ’86), and playing with the Sunset Music Company. Generally, people nod knowingly when I mention Mr. Goodman, and are puzzled by the other reference. Nonetheless, both experiences meant a great deal to me. Ev Farey was the trumpet player of the first edition of the SMC. In May of 1977, we flew to Schipol Airport (near Amsterdam) and traveled by bus an hour or so to Breda, which still hosts an annual jazz festival. Back then it was known as the “Oude Stijl (‘Old Style’) International Jazz Festival.” Other band members in that first version of the SMC were: Mike Baird, clarinet and alto sax; Mike Fay, bass; Jeff Hamilton, drums; Ev on trumpet; our leader, Lueder Ohlwein on banjo and vocals; and young me on trombone. Lueder (“Lyoo’-dur”) was an extraordinary musician. He played solid, swinging tenor banjo; could sing beautifully (including some of the hippest scat singing I’ve ever heard), and moreover was one of my favorite BLUES singers! (When it comes to blues singing, German banjo players don’t exactly spring to mind). In short, Lueder was a remarkable g