I was pretty crazy at sixteen, and if you need any proof, just listen to what I did when I was finally able to rub a couple of dimes together: I didn't run out and buy a mess of food… Instead I got me a record player--right there in Orlando [Florida, 1940's], in the midst of the worst economic depression of my life. I figured that was all the nourishment I needed. I wanted to hear all the Jazz at the Philharmonic records. Those early sessions had everyone on them: Illinois Jacquet, Benny Carter, Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Nat Cole, Roy Eldridge. I remember a particularly wild blowing session on "Lady Be Good." Many musical schools--from swing to modern--were coming together and coming apart then, and I loved 'em all. I could hear what everyone was doing, and I played those records over and over again. It's strange when I think back to those sides. Norman Granz, who produced the concerts, is now a friend of mine and someone who's booked me on Europe for years. And Benny Carter would one day write arrangements for my own big band. I'd get to meet and play with many of those cats on that record within fifteen years. Sitting around Orlando and listening to these guys blow in the forties, though, I was just a kid admiring the great jazz artists of my time. Way down in Florida, those records were the only way we knew what the heaviest dudes were up to. << less