Remembering Kendall

 

The hole in the SL live music scene's heart came on 03/12/21 when we learned that the flame that burned so brightly within one of the greatest guitarists on the grid, Kendall Jigsaw had suddenly gone out, leaving his legion of friends and fans shocked and deeply saddened, for he was a much loved member of the SL music community.

 

I hadn't planned on taking pen to paper but the outpouring of love on Facebook for Kendall and me reading our chat history saw me needing to. Kendall and I weren't extremely close friends but we were friends none the less after meeting at the old Swampwater blues venue one night when the place was empty apart from Kendall and I and our dance partners. We got chatting about a recent blog that was written about him and by the end of the chat we we friends.

 

During later conversations Kendall told me that he came to SL in March, knew zero songs and barely knew how to sing...now I bet we all beg to differ on that but he learned fast because he had so much help from his fellow artists. He said that he didn't know that people really played live music in SL and when he found out he was blown away and all he wanted to do was play and hoped it worked out. He wanted to play to make himself better, also to have fun and if he reached one person that day and lightened their load then he won. For him it was a deeply personal connection as he let people inside him deeply and that connection in his words helped his soul to heal.

 

Over time, we talked about his education and how he was a drop out but went back and got a BS in animation only to walk away from teaching when he disagreed with the whole structure, I asked him if he missed it, he said he missed solving problems and communicating complex ideas but he did not miss the education system, how he thought there were many handcuffed by runaway politics and he refused to be..

 

After hearing Kendall do some acoustic songs at Scarlets Red Rocks, particularly a song that he had written for the child of a friend of his who had passed we chatted about his love of of acoustic and how he was hoping to do more of that in SL but how he thought that people just wanted him to do high energy rock..in his words everyone expected guitar bombs and if that's what they wanted he was happy to give them that. For me acoustic Kendall was something special.

 

He also had a wicked sense of humour, recently when we happened to be at a set by Paul Nowles at RockStar Island that JimmyT was also at, Kendall laughingly decided that him and I should start some rumours about Jimmy T and put them on my blog..hmm no Kendall we aren't lol. We then went on to discuss the coat he had on which was rather spiffy and he explained it was his "Fancy coat"...phew disaster averted

 

The last time I spoke to Kendall was just recently when I went to one of his and Princess Jenni's sets at a venue don't recall. I was looking to blog him when I got a message from my fellow bloggers that they were available then and there to get together and do something we had been trying to plan for a while. I left and later messaged Kendall to apologise to which in typical Kendall sense he replied "Its all groovy, always next time" Sadly there was no next time.

 

We will all miss Kendall, for me , his morning hair and his "probably thinking about butts" coffee mug never failed to put a smile on my face and as individuals we will all mourn him and remember him for the Kendall he was to each of us for we all have different memories of him, but as we carry the memory of Kendall in our heart and mind please let us band together and give support to Princess Jenni, the lady that will forever do it harder than the rest of us.

 

Love and hugs to you all

Harlow

xoxoxox