Chris was my music teacher forever ago -- I took bass lessons from 1973-1978 or so.  Chris was an amazing teacher and such is the way of amazing teachers -- you remember them and the lessons learned for decades, if not forever.  The only reason I stopped taking lessons from Chris is that, in 1977, he told me "you've already learned from me everything I can teach you, I'm a pianist, not a bassist, and there is a serious jazz bassist who lives down the block from you, in Chelsea."  

I ceased taking lessons from Chris, but never forgot him. 

I was just remembering Chris and learned he died in 2020.  My condolences to his family and friends.  

Here is what I posted about Chris, yesterday, 5/17/2022:

5/17: I was so fortunate. At age 10, I saw a flyer on the wall of my grade school offering bass lessons from Christopher Cherney. Chris was a great person and an amazing teacher. And Chris told me to go buy two records -- the "Brown Album" by The Band and the "Porch Album" by Taj Mahal. Taj Mahal turns 80 today and his playing and feel for the blues tremendously impacted my own musical endeavors. Thank you, Taj Mahal! Happy 80th Birthday! I hope you are doing a little Cakewalk Into Town today.

5/18: I learned from my post that Christopher Cherney is no longer with us. But even though I'm shouting into the ether, let me note what a tremendous lifelong gift it is to have had a nurturing, trusting teacher. As but one example - Chris spent months buying a Vintage Fender Precision Bass (1972ish?) and personally refinished it, sanded it, worked it over and over. It was a beauty. When I was 13 and applying to High Schools, Chris insisted I borrow HIS bass for my auditions to High School of Music & Art and the High School of Performing Arts (the "Fame" schools). He said I would play with more confidence. I did, and gained admission to both schools. But it wasn't lost on me that Chris was letting a scrawny kid walk around on the 1970s NYC subways with HIS $1,000 instrument. What a great, trusting nurturing person! RIP.