Tony, I forgot to tell you that I grew up in Dizzy Gillespie’s hometown, Cheraw, South Carolina. There is a huge sculpture of him playing his horn on the town green. Cheraw is known as “the Prettiest Town in Dixie” for a reason. One month before the not so civil Civil War was over General Sherman was hold up in a basement in town waiting for a new bridge to be constructed over the Great Pee Dee river since the previous bridge had been burned for obvious reasons. Because a little boy, who was sitting on his knee at the time, looked at him and said, Please Mr. Sherman, don’t burn my town, he ordered a contingent of troops to remain behind to protect Cheraw from looters who might destroy the place blaming him. Also, Dizzy’s birthplace is marked. He played his trumpet while young in a grocery store parking lot to attract customers. Another one of Cheraw’s children went on to lead the United Nations orchestra. Me, I was but a trombone player. I did get my older brother’s trumpet when I could and play along with records as best I could. My wife, Inessa, sang coloratura in the Bolshoy ballet in Moscow when she was growing up. She never made it, however, as she’s still such a child. Paul, your taxi driver