[... M]y first big job was when Louis [Armstrong] left Chicago on his first big tour with a group, and we went into the club where we was playing. He had been broadcasting from there. They were looking for a trumpet player to take Louis' place and they got Jabbo Smith. Jabbo was as good as Louis then. He was the Dizzy Gillespie of that era. He played rapid-fire passages while Louis was melodic and beautiful. He played anything with a cup mouthpiece--trombone and bass trumpet, as well as trumpet. He could play soft and he could play fast but he never made it. He got hung up in Newark.

It was a wonderful band. A man called Cass Simpson, he was the end on piano. He lost his mind. Last I heard he was in an insane asylum in Illinois. He was almost fanatical. He played incessantly all day. He had terrific technique and was a fine pianist and arranger. He also had a mania for naming all his tunes after some food. Like he had tunes called "Stringbeans and Rice", "Chittlins and Greens". He was a stout man.