The last surviving original member of the Band died on Tuesday. He was a master on keys and saxophones who could conjure a panoply of scenes and eras.

If you sang “Auld Lang Syne” on New Year’s Eve, you were speaking Scots. The lyricist? Poet Robert (aka Rabbie) Burns.

We didn’t see them in action here, during the festive season, and neither did they usher in the New Year, in our part of the world. And, since they were missing in action, music lovers were wondering ...