Allen Blairman passed away. The legend from the neighbourhood

The news has shocked us deeply. Alan Blairman, the, dare we say it, great global Heidelberg drummer of American origin, is dead. There are two ways of putting his mastery into words. One is to simply list with whom he played in the course of his long career. For reasons of space, here are just a few names that we are all very familiar with through Enjoy Jazz: Charlie Haden, Archie Shepp or Karl Berger. But one comes closer to this great spiritual spirit in his deeply anchored humanity when one remembers personal encounters with him. During conversations, for example in a café, he liked to have a pair of drum sticks with him and to explain his ideas, also extra-musical ones, rhythmically on the tabletop with the greatest naturalness. When people at the surrounding tables looked at him in irritation, he smiled and said wordlessly: "I can't help it. And it's in you too, this eternal rhythm". And somehow everyone understood. We will sorely miss this great drummer and incomparably warm-hearted person who had found a last musical home in the "Trio Variety".