Ernie Tollar, everyone’s favourite musician, is now a soloist in the Multiple Sclerosis all stars. Soon traveling to Mexico for a treatment that potentially halts or slows down its progression. Last night, he performed at the Tranzac but by 8 o’clock, when I arrived, he had already finished. Nevertheless, I had the opportunity to spend time with him and engage in a conversation about how MS has been affecting his body and our shared experiences of returning to school not as spring chickens, as well as discussions on improvisation. He took some coins from his pocket and demonstrated how his sense perception has been altered. Without looking at the coins, one hand can identify the difference between a quarter or a nickel, whereas the fingers of the other hand cannot distinguish the same data simply by feel, hence he now experiences physical problems covering holes when playing flute or correctly fingering saxophone. I have always loved his musical relationship, whether the tone he makes or the perfect notes pulled out of the sky. He played the bombard on Bhopal (driftnet plan) late one 1987 evening as we recorded at the Music Gallery while the closing Caribana party was in full force upstairs in the same building. Bass frequencies in the wrong key bled into Bhopal’s tracks but it would take more than that to stop my first record. I heard Ernie three years earlier and thought of Jan Garbarek who, with Keith Jarrett, made my favourite records. It was amazing. I never met a saxophonist echo that. I got to know him and realized he loved the same recordings. One time in the 2000s, outside Long and McQuade, I bumped into him and he had become a father. He told me about his little kids and what the Dad job was like. He was in a very happy space and implored me to do it too, “as soon as you can” he said through a smile that combined laughter, signaling both awareness of a certain knowledge and the understanding that words fall short in conveying that knowledge. A few years later, I walked into him playing with a group called One Big Song. I had not seen him in a few years, didn’t didn’t know if he recognized me from where I sat but at a certain point his chin motioned towards me and then the piano. I was pleased being recognized and trusted to improvise, considering their music had changes which a stranger might ruin. Not just anyone is cool letting a mad scientist enter their laboratory. His kids did the door last night, they were cute and filled with beans. He said his son is a talented chess player. Ernie proves his skill too in the grand game of life, gracefully navigating musical challenges and life-altering situations.