Saying good-bye to the music man

Tim Haslett, well known in Boston music circles, was found dead in Michigan last week.

David Day: While he may be gone, he lives on in our hearts, our minds and--more than anything--inside of the music we listen to every single day of our lives:

Tim worked at various record stores all around Boston. Boston Beat, Biscuithead, Other Music, Twisted Village, Planet, you name it. He knew so much. Tim knew what was going to be big. Always. He taught me personally about labels like Kompakt and BPitch Control. His descriptions on records were worth more than the records. He told me all about Lil Jon and how big Lil Jon was going to be. I did not believe him for one second. He used words like sawtooth. He loved Thomas Brinkmann. He spent endless hours tracking down DJ Screw CDRs, eventually finding a distributor in the depths of the Bayou. ...

Joe Keohane recalls how he first met Haslett on the job at a soon-to-fail entertainment Web site and then kept running into him at various music stores:

... [H]e was a huge music fan without being a music snob in the slightest. So if you had no idea who, say, Peter Brotzmann was, Tim would be excited to turn you on, not mortified at your bottomless musical ignorance. ...

George: Tim was one of the most knowledgeable and passionate people I have known:

... He was a very friendly guy, never pretentious and consistently hilarious. He will be missed deeply. ...

Jace: Everytime i bumped into Tim he would gently tip new ideas (or new music) into my head.

Robothead first met him at WZBC in the early '90s:

... He was highly regarded, almost to the point of guru status, for his musical tastes. He was really into hip-hop and funk, stuff I didn't know much about, but the way he talked about the stuff gave you the impression that he knew just about everything there was to know about. Best of all, his enthusiasm wasn’t bounded by any sense of serious decorum. ...

There will be a memorial service Friday, March 21, 3 p.m. at the Friends Meeting, 5 Longfellow Park in Cambridge (off Brattle, near Harvard Square).

Wayne and Wax report there will also be a tribute to him on Monday, March 24 at 9 p.m. at Cambridge's Enormous Room, 567 Mass. Ave.:

If you're a local DJ type who knew him, come on out and bring a few rekkids Tim woulda liked.