Farewell Kyle Keener, AFM, Local 23 Member since 4/24/1972

Sometimes it seems as if virtually every one of San Antonio's jazz scene stories has, as its origin, a casual encounter with Kyle Keener, the superb drummer and singer we lost Tuesday. Musician after musician will relate a strikingly consistent narrative—I was a novice who didn’t know a dominant flat-13th from a hunk of sharp cheddar; this poised and accomplished master of time and space invited me into his realm, showed me what was truly possible, bucked me up when I was flailing in flop sweat, kept my wig straight, and managed to elevate me without ever talking down to me. Even those of us who’d already done a few laps around the block by the time we met Kyle experienced some variation on this theme. Shortly after arriving here, when asked by a local luminary how I was settling in, I mentioned my excitement at having been asked to sit in by Kyle and his Small World alter ego Polly Harrison. “Oh, they ask everyone to play,” countered...