Remembering a superior music man

Music has always been a gigantic part of my life. When I was eleven I started playing tenor saxophone. (I had already had about four years of piano.) My teacher there in Cairo, Georgia was William T. Verran, a tough, old-style discipline man who just scared the daylights out of my young, skinny form. But one day, despite all his emphasis on technique with all the scales and arpeggios and his constant harping on trying to get a good tone, it suddenly hit me that this little old fellow with the harsh command voice really knew what he was talking about. He respected talents like Dizzy Gillespie and Harry James and Gene Krupa just as many big names as he could tell us kids about. I got in the high school band when I was thirteen. It was tough but it became a lot of fun a little later on. I realized later when I went into theater productions and extemporaneous speaking that having in my life a wonderful discipline man of music, this guy called William T. Verran was a magnificent thing. All of us in the town of Cairo Georgia nicknamed 'Billy Verran' 'Major.' He had never been an officer in the United States Army but he sure acted like one. In this season of memories I look back now on the man who really got me fascinated with the thrilling world of music and I am forever grateful to the guy who helped me appreciate folks like Dizzy Gillespie, Harry James and Gene Krupa.