First off, congrats Mom! Or as I should now be saying, Dr. Mom!
I received an email from a friend today telling me that a mutual friend of ours had passed away earlier this week.
Warren was a very creative and laid back guy who was one of the very few people I had kept in contact with from my dreadful days of high school. We became pretty good friends years later when he called me up to do some jamming. I had no idea he played an instrument, let alone some great percussive bass. We’d have some great rhythm section jams in my folks basement which eventually ended up with he and I starting a trio with my buddy Dave which we called “The Stony Curtis Trio.” Kinda like early 70s fusion Miles. Dave and I were very close on account of playing in the T.O. group SubStack together, being drinking buddies and practically roomies as I was always at his awesome apartment smack dab in the heart of Queen St. West, which I lovingly referred to as “headquarters.” Warren was with us most nights since we had just as a great time hanging out and cracking each other up as we did playing music together.
The bands split up, relationships with significant others became more serious and Dave moved away to NYC. We’d temporarily lose track of what everyone was up, but I’d run into Warren quite often around town. We’d play together once in a while in different musical situations, but not frequently as life tends to get busier with age. Warren had always been a fantastic artist and had decided to go back to school to learn glass-blowing. He ended up doing some fabulous stuff; having shows and selling pieces. We’d touch base now and again and always talked about hanging out and playing.
One Saturday afternoon the previous summer I ran into Warren on the patio of a family friend’s restaurant. It turned out that he had a music project happening with one of the cooks that worked there. Small world. He was gearing up to head off to meet his lady in Europe, where they planned to stay for some time. I never heard from him again and am saddened that I won’t be.