Quincy Jones discovered me in the 50's when I was with the Birdland All Stars, Al Cohn and me on saxes and Conte Candoli and Kenny Dorham on trumpets with Sarah Vaughn's rhythm section. Q hired me to be part of the Dizzy Gillespie band that was getting ready for a Middle East tour for the state department. I did all of Quincy's early recordings and took part in the band that went to Europe with the ill fated show, “Free & Easy”, a remake of Harold Arlen's “St. Louis Woman”. Quincy lost a bundle during that year in Europe . When the show folded Quincy kept the band in Europe booking it himself. Read his book “Q” to learn more about this. One time I called him and told him I did not have enough money to buy groceries for my family. He said come over and I'll give you half of what I have. He had 200 francs. He gave me 100! When people say he has too much I tell them they don't know squat about this great man! His first album was called “This Is How I Feel About Jazz”. I just did a CD of some of his great tunes and did this one original to be included. The CD is called, appropriately, “This Is How I Feel About Quincy”. It was done for Graham Carter's label, Jazzed Media and is a heck of a good album if I do say so myself.
