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May 16, 2009

NYT: A Long Road Back…Not a Lonely One

With his wife’s help, Terence Conley walked slowly toward a piano on a recent Thursday at the Jazz Foundation of America headquarters in Manhattan.

“Play something nice,” Judith Conley told her husband as she eased him onto a piano stool.

Mr. Conley, 51, steadied his fingers above the keys, smiled across the room in the direction of his three children and began playing “Ruby, My Dear.”

“I’m glad he chose that tune,” his wife whispered. “It’s one of the hardest to play in all of jazz.”

For Mr. Conley, a former member of the Count Basie Orchestra, tackling those difficult chords was another small but important step in his recovery from a September accident that nearly killed him.

Several months before, he had taken a job as a driver for Federal Express to earn some extra money — decent-paying jazz gigs had been disappearing even before the recession.

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jfa in the press

Read about the Jazz Foundation in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, and People magazine.

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247 W 37th Street, Suite 201 • info@jazzfoundation.org • Privacy Policy/SiteCredits • Website by RocketBike
  • 247 W 37th Street, Suite 201 • info@jazzfoundation.org • Privacy Policy/SiteCredits • Website by RocketBike
  • SHOP
  • COVID-19 Fund
  • Main Stage
  • About
    • Artist Stories
    • The Cause
    • The Jazz Foundation Story
    • Our Team
    • The Board
  • What We Do
    • Musicians’ Emergency Fund
      • Housing & Emergency Assistance
      • Pro Bono Medical
      • Disaster Relief
    • Creating Employment
      • Jazz & Blues in the Schools
      • The Gig Fund
      • Jazz & Blues in Nursing Homes
      • Lessons From The Legends
    • Partnerships & Projects
      • Jazz Legacies Fellowship
      • 1000 Watts
      • The Last Note
  • Events
    • Events Calendar
    • Annual Events
      • A Great Night in Harlem
      • The Loft Party
    • Monday Night Jam
    • Musicians For Hire
  • News
  • Get Help
  • Donate
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