Joe Oliver had a few numbers that were on sheets of music, but he got away from it as quickly as he could. You see, Joe was no great reader. Joe Oliver was very strong. He was the greatest freak trumpet player I ever knew. he did most of his playing with cups, glasses, buckets, and mutes. He was the best gutbucket man I ever heard. I called him freak because the sounds he made were not made by the valves but through these artificial devices. In contrast, Louis [Armstrong] played everything through the horn.

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I'll tell you something about Joe's records. I haven't heard a single one that does close to sounding like Joe's playing in person. I don't know what it was, but I'll tell you the truth, I don't believe it is Joe playing on the records sometimes. It never sounded to me much like Joe.