Thanks to Martin Scorsese’s extraordinary cinematic vision and related talent, millions worldwide have experienced the musical magic that was The Last Waltz. Bill Avis is on another level. He lived and breathed what transpired that magical November night in 1976, bearing witness as Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson bade farewell as an entity. Avis well earned his side stage place that night, having served as a roadie with The Band before becoming the group’s road manager. Today, an original Last Waltz poster is displayed proudly in Avis’ Peterborough home. One could surmise it brings back special memories for Avis but that’s assuming those memories left at some point. They have not nor will they. Ever.-

On the front of the well-worn bass drum belonging to Jerome Levon Avis is a photo of his eight-year-old self, intently practicing drum licks on a baseball glove under the watchful eye of his godfather. Nothing too out of the ordinary…except his mentor is Levon Helm. After years of learning at Helm’s knee, Avis played with him and The Band on occasion in the 1990s. Since 2010, Bill Avis and Son Productions, with multi-awarded keyboardist and producer Lance Anderson, have brought The Last Waltz: A Musical Celebration of the Band to audiences across Canada. In 2012, when Helm passed, father and son were among a select few invited to his private service in Woodstock, New York. Avis’ recollections of his godfather’s kindnesses and love have left him with a treasure trove of wonderful memories and, on occasion, tears, almost always accompanied by the remembrance “Levon was a beautiful soul…I miss him.”