Did you always play the way you did,
or did your...
I mean, Coleman Hawkins
was the tenor sax man then,
in those days.
Yeah, well I had a lot of trouble
along those days,
because the people couldn't understand the way I sound,
and they wanted me to play like Coleman Hawkins,
you know, to each his own, you know.
Things like that, so I played in a band,
and there was about three
Three boys from the west,
they fired the trombone player,
a great big envelope,
and they fired the trumpet player.
He was going, well I'm the third party,
I know they're going to fire me too,
you dig?
We were all from Kansas City
you know. We came to New York,
so we wasn't in
the New York clique
you know. So that made the difference,
so I went to him and asked him
could I get a recommendation
so I could split and go back home you know.
So he did, and I went back
and then I started playing with Andy Kirk.
But you replaced Hawkins,
didn't you,
in the Fletch Anderson band?
Yes, I did. Wasn't it pretty tough
for you to replace him
when everybody was so used
to the Hawkins style?
Oh yeah, I caught all kind of trouble,
you know, like that, because most of the people
would come out to hear him
and see me up there and
listen to the way I sound,
you know, and they're looking
for him.
I think he was in Switzerland or Sweden,
something like that.