New Orleans was another such occasion. At 2 a.m. I found myself leading a very large swing band at some sort of gala reception. At 5 a.m. I was still in my concert 'tails' and jamming away like mad in the middle of the horseshoe-shaped bar of a place called 'The Paddock' with a small all-Negro band of old-time celebrities like Pop Celestine on cornet and Alphonse Picou on the strangest clarinet I have ever see - a tiny replica of a bass clarinet painted with hoops of different colours, and with a small upturned bell at the bottom to balance a metal 'crook' at the top. The sad fact was that these really excellent players were playing in a famous bar outside which hung a neon-lit sign which said unequivocally 'Whites Only'. It is a circumstance now happily resolved, but which carried with it a lot of discomfort at the time. << less