An approachable icon: Remembering LeRoi Moore

By Bryan McKenzie

Published: August 26, 2008

The horn lies silent and the reeds are still, but LeRoi Moore’s music lives in the hearts of others.

Friends, family and fans are gathering today to mourn and remember the man who made his name as a rock star saxophonist for the Dave Matthews Band while earning a reputation as a talented, down-to-earth, likable guy.

The funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. at First Baptist Church, 735 Park St. The Rev. Sherry Hardwick Thomas will preside and the Rev. Dr. William Guthrie will deliver the eulogy.

Officials are expecting a large turnout and ask drivers to avoid Park Street between downtown and U.S. 250 this morning.

“[Charlottesville police] will have a presence on Park Street beginning at 10 a.m. and lasting until the last cars leave First Baptist Church,” said Ric Barrick, city spokesman. “Although no roads will be closed, because of the expected larger than normal turnout, drivers are asked to find other routes into downtown, if possible, during that period.”

‘A genuine, nice guy’

Mr. Moore’s music, and the personality that infused and inflected it, will be sorely missed, said 80-year-old Don Ambler, of Colorado.

“He was such a genuine, nice guy,” recalled Mr. Ambler, who was Mr. Moore’s clarinet instructor in Lakewood, Colo., just outside of Denver. “He was a fantastic musician, truly talented, but he always wanted to better himself.”

Mr. Ambler has played professionally for more than six decades and teaches Denver-area students from grade school to professionals. He met Mr. Moore through Richard Hardy, a Los Angeles-based musician who had toured with the Dave Matthews Band. Mr. Hardy is a former member of the Colorado symphony and colleague and student of Mr. Ambler.

“Richard had told LeRoi about me and said [Mr. Moore] wanted to have a lesson,” Mr. Ambler recalled. “I was flattered. I met him and he was such a great person. He was at the top of his business, a real superstar, but he didn’t act like it.”

The teacher and the student hit it off.

“He wanted to improve his clarinet,” Ambler recalled. “I thought he was good already, but he really worked at it. Every time I saw him, he’d always improved.”

Mr. Moore stopped for a lesson whenever the band was near Denver. He picked up tips on the clarinet and then studied the bass clarinet, Mr. Ambler’s specialty. He also studied the contrabass clarinet. He provided tickets to a Dave Matthews Band concert for some of Mr. Ambler’s many students and talked to them afterward.

Consumate student

“He was always interested in his tone and sound and finding ways to improve it. He loved how each instrument has a different sound,” Mr. Ambler said. “I’d look for different mouthpieces for him and ligatures because all of it affects the tone of the instrument and the player and he understood that.”

Mr. Moore’s love of music was not only shared, it grew up through high school and middle school with that of Jimmy Hormel Jr.

“We started playing saxophone the same day at Henley Middle School and we both really took to it,” Mr. Hormel recalled from his business office in San Francisco. “Sharing that experience, hearing the music and taking it outside of band class and playing jam sessions, those were teaching experiences.”

The two grew up listening and learning jazz and blues music together.

“We’d play records from John Coltrane and Charlie Parker; there weren’t too many kids our age listening to that music. He went on to study jazz and I went into playing music professionally after high school, and we’d sit in with each other now and then,” Mr. Hormel said. “I’ll miss him dearly.”