This year we lost a dear friend and wonderful trombone player, Steve Pendleton.
Steve was simply the best guy in the band. But chances are Steve Pendleton would pretty much be the best guy in any room he happened to inhabit.
Gentle. Genuinely caring. A thoughtful person with a quick but never unkind wit. Most of us knew him for nearly 40 years. Mike Thaman knew him even longer and he never really changed. A solicitous and unquestioning friend.
Above all -- and he would want to hear this perhaps more than anything else -- he was a superb trombone player. He cared about the music we played and dug in as deeply as his schedule would permit to become an even better player. Andy Waynick, one of our other trombonists, still remembers a solo Steve took at a gig in Kentucky a few years back. It's a number called "Home", and as Andy describes it "a sweet and simple tune and that's how Steve played it -- sweet, straightforward and with every note in tune and in the right place."
A few years ago Steve encouraged his dad, Rusty, to join us at a gig to play banjo. He, along with Steve's mom Dot, has become an important part of our band.
We treasure their friendship now and miss Steve's very much.
We miss him but he's always with us any time we play "What A Wonderful World" or "Georgia On My Mind."
Or just any time we play.