…[B]ack in Kansas City even the so-called lesser guys--too many to mention--including some whose names I don't even know, always played with that feeling I've found nowhere else in jazz. These are men who were in the same age bracket of the ones back in New Orleans and Chicago. They had that feeling but were never written about--like Tommy Douglas and Walter Knight.

I went into Kansas City to join Tommy Douglas. He was and still is one of the most proficient sax players alive today. Several jazz musicians came up around him, and I think [Charlie] Parker brushed with him somewhere along the line. Like Benny Carter or Don Redman were regarded in the East, Douglas was in Kansas City. I remember he played clarinet and sax and played a little of both. And Knight had such a great big, open tone on alto. Another aspect of his playing that made it so good was the way he used to bend his changes.