Let me tell you about Bird and how I first heard him play. […]

The vogue before the war was to have a breakfast dance on one day of the week. Every club in Chicago […] would [...], with the show going on at six thirty in the morning.

One spot there, 65 Club, [...] had a little combo with King Kolax on trumpet; a kid named Goon Gardner, who could swing like mad, on alto; John Simmons on bass; and Kansas Fields, drums.

It was more or less a jam show, for after the show all the musicians would blow in there. We were standing around one morning when a guy comes up that looks like he just got off a freight car, the raggedest guy you'd ever want to see at ths moment. And he asks Goon, "Say, man, can I come up and blow your horn?"

[... Goon replied,] "Yes, man, go ahead." And this cat gets up there, and I'm telling you, he blew the bell off that thing! It was Charlie Parker, just come in from Kansas City on a freight train. I guess Bird was no more than eighteen then, but playing like you never heard--wailing alto then. And that was before he joined Jay McShann.

He blew so much until he upset everybody in the joint[.]