It's rare in anyone's life that they meet someone they're related to after almost an entire lifetime. Last week that happened for me when my 2nd cousin Bruce Boyd Raeburn came to visit with his wife Linda Carroll for a little over 4 days. Bruce's father Boyd "Albert" Raeburn was my Grandfather Hagan'
s sister's son and Boyd was a semi famous groundbreaking big band leader in the early 40s into the 1950s. I heard about his dad for decades from my father and actually heard some of the Boyd Raeburn Orchestra albums my dad had when I was quite young but wasn't smart enough to realize how cool what was actually happening on them. I didn't really explore Boyd Raeburn's music until we were living in Sioux City, IA, in the mid-90s when my dad's cousin Jim made me 15 cassette tapes of all of his old Boyd Raeburn albums. I was totally blown away and found out from Jim at the time the Boyd had a son named Bruce Boyd who was at Tulane University in New Orleans and who ran the Hogan Jazz Archive there. Bruce has a PHD in History but also plays drums and has been playing in Punk and other bands in New Orleans for decades. I told someone earlier this week that meeting Bruce Boyd was like gaining a brother for me and I think he feels the same.

So last week for me was an especially good week here and I plan to keep in better touch with Bruce and interact with him far more than I have in the past.
Bruce's wife Linda was amazing too. She teaches Italian at Tulane but has been on sabbatical in Padua, Italy, for the past 9 months researching 16th century Italian playwrights. Having both of them here last week was a gift plain and simple.

Life is good here in Paris but then, I guess that's not a surprise is it???

A bientot,

Sid