1 00:00:00,333 --> 00:00:06,333 [soft jazz piano music] 2 00:00:15,900 --> 00:00:19,100 - I was born in 1928, July the 4th, 3 00:00:19,100 --> 00:00:22,233 and I grew up in Highland Park, New Jersey. 4 00:00:22,233 --> 00:00:25,400 My father was a band director and a musician-- 5 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:28,166 had a nice little band in central Jersey. 6 00:00:28,166 --> 00:00:30,566 [music continues] 7 00:00:30,566 --> 00:00:33,133 And my father was the band director where I went to school. 8 00:00:33,133 --> 00:00:35,400 We had instruments all over the house. 9 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:37,400 And whatever he needed, I ended up playing. 10 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:39,733 So I started out... 11 00:00:39,733 --> 00:00:42,066 probably playing a bugle in a closet 12 00:00:42,066 --> 00:00:43,566 when his band was rehearsing. 13 00:00:43,566 --> 00:00:46,733 I probably drove them crazy for a while. 14 00:00:46,733 --> 00:00:51,066 [soft jazz music] 15 00:00:51,066 --> 00:00:54,566 When I was young, I loved Tommy Dorsey. 16 00:00:54,566 --> 00:00:56,900 So he got me a trombone, 17 00:00:56,900 --> 00:00:59,733 which was my first brass instrument. 18 00:00:59,733 --> 00:01:01,900 Eventually I, you know, picked up string bass 19 00:01:01,900 --> 00:01:03,233 along the line. 20 00:01:03,233 --> 00:01:05,400 That's about the time when we met Bill Evans, 21 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:07,566 when I was about 13 or 14. 22 00:01:07,566 --> 00:01:11,233 [music fades] 23 00:01:11,233 --> 00:01:15,066 [jazz music] 24 00:01:15,066 --> 00:01:17,066 We were like brothers. 25 00:01:17,066 --> 00:01:19,900 He would stay over my house. I would stay over his house. 26 00:01:19,900 --> 00:01:22,733 We were as close as two kids could be, 27 00:01:22,733 --> 00:01:25,400 musically, you know, and friends. 28 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:28,233 We did get together just to practice and to have fun. 29 00:01:28,233 --> 00:01:31,400 He had his nice, little, small room with a piano, 30 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:35,066 and a drummer would set up his drum set. 31 00:01:35,066 --> 00:01:36,366 We would learn tunes there. 32 00:01:36,366 --> 00:01:38,400 Like, some of the tunes would be, like, "But Beautiful," 33 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:41,133 which Bill recorded I don't know how many times. 34 00:01:41,133 --> 00:01:42,566 We used to go to the movies a lot, 35 00:01:42,566 --> 00:01:45,566 because it was only 17 cents. 36 00:01:45,566 --> 00:01:49,233 One time we saw-- heard this music... 37 00:01:49,233 --> 00:01:51,700 [humming jazz tune] 38 00:01:51,700 --> 00:01:55,733 [jazz music] 39 00:01:55,733 --> 00:01:57,500 "Green Dolphin Street." 40 00:01:57,500 --> 00:01:59,566 So we were so impressed with that tune, 41 00:01:59,566 --> 00:02:02,233 we went back to the movies maybe two or three times 42 00:02:02,233 --> 00:02:03,633 to learn the tune. 43 00:02:03,633 --> 00:02:08,066 This is the summer of 1946 at Asbury Park. 44 00:02:08,066 --> 00:02:09,500 There's Bill Evans, myself-- 45 00:02:09,500 --> 00:02:12,066 that's Connie Atkinson-- 46 00:02:12,066 --> 00:02:13,433 George Bache. 47 00:02:13,433 --> 00:02:15,400 [music continues] 48 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:19,066 In those days, it was the middle of the war, basically, 49 00:02:19,066 --> 00:02:21,333 and my father was looking for good players. 50 00:02:21,333 --> 00:02:23,733 And here comes Bill and George, 51 00:02:23,733 --> 00:02:26,066 and they come in and got on the stand, 52 00:02:26,066 --> 00:02:27,900 and we began playing, 53 00:02:27,900 --> 00:02:29,566 and, of course, right off the bat, 54 00:02:29,566 --> 00:02:31,566 we knew exactly that these two guys 55 00:02:31,566 --> 00:02:33,066 knew exactly what they were doing. 56 00:02:33,066 --> 00:02:34,833 They were wonderful players. 57 00:02:34,833 --> 00:02:36,733 So my father was all set for a piano player 58 00:02:36,733 --> 00:02:38,233 for the next couple years. 59 00:02:38,233 --> 00:02:41,400 And by that time, I was really playing a little more bass, 60 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:43,400 and so I was the bass player. 61 00:02:43,400 --> 00:02:48,900 [lively jazz music] 62 00:02:48,900 --> 00:02:51,233 This is the trio that we had, here-- 63 00:02:51,233 --> 00:02:53,566 Frank, myself, and Bill. 64 00:02:53,566 --> 00:02:55,400 See, Frank was from South River, 65 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:57,400 and they had a lot of Polish people, 66 00:02:57,400 --> 00:02:59,400 a lot of Hungarians, a lot of Russians, 67 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:01,400 and we played all those jobs. 68 00:03:01,400 --> 00:03:02,900 So we'd go down to those big halls, 69 00:03:02,900 --> 00:03:03,900 and they'd have the weddings 70 00:03:03,900 --> 00:03:05,666 that would last a couple of days. 71 00:03:05,666 --> 00:03:10,400 [jazz music] 72 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:12,733 We went to Southeastern in '46. 73 00:03:12,733 --> 00:03:14,333 Frank had that crazy car-- 74 00:03:14,333 --> 00:03:17,633 a '37 Studebaker Dictator. 75 00:03:17,633 --> 00:03:21,066 [music continues] 76 00:03:21,066 --> 00:03:25,300 Frank Wrobel, Bill, and myself got together. 77 00:03:25,300 --> 00:03:27,233 In his car were all the drums 78 00:03:27,233 --> 00:03:30,900 and all of the suitcases, all our clothes, 79 00:03:30,900 --> 00:03:34,133 and on the top of the car was my bass. 80 00:03:34,133 --> 00:03:37,066 [music continues] 81 00:03:37,066 --> 00:03:39,400 We rode all the way down to Louisiana with that up there, 82 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:41,233 and it never rained once. 83 00:03:41,233 --> 00:03:45,400 [music continues] 84 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:49,300 It took us three days because of radiator trouble with the car. 85 00:03:49,300 --> 00:03:55,066 [music continues] 86 00:03:55,066 --> 00:03:56,333 We got in to Hammond. 87 00:03:56,333 --> 00:03:58,400 What we wanted to do was get out of the car 88 00:03:58,400 --> 00:03:59,433 and play a little bit. 89 00:03:59,433 --> 00:04:00,600 So somebody said, 90 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:02,733 "Okay, you can go up and put your stuff 91 00:04:02,733 --> 00:04:04,633 on the stage in the music building." 92 00:04:04,633 --> 00:04:06,733 [music continues] 93 00:04:06,733 --> 00:04:07,933 So we started playing, 94 00:04:07,933 --> 00:04:11,233 and as we played, there were kids coming in, 95 00:04:11,233 --> 00:04:13,400 and the next thing you know, we had an audience. 96 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:15,233 One of them was Fern's brother. 97 00:04:15,233 --> 00:04:17,233 Said he heard these three guys from New Jersey. 98 00:04:17,233 --> 00:04:18,733 "Boy, wait till you hear them." 99 00:04:18,733 --> 00:04:21,733 [jazz piano music] 100 00:04:21,733 --> 00:04:25,166 And then we picked up some other musicians from down there, 101 00:04:25,166 --> 00:04:27,400 and we had a group called the Casuals 102 00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:29,733 in a place called Felix's. 103 00:04:29,733 --> 00:04:31,833 There was a nightclub-- Club Tangee. 104 00:04:31,833 --> 00:04:33,866 We played down there a couple of nights a week. 105 00:04:33,866 --> 00:04:36,566 [jazz music] 106 00:04:36,566 --> 00:04:39,733 Oh, here's another group that Bill played in--'45 or '46. 107 00:04:39,733 --> 00:04:42,433 They were playing in the Adams Theatre in Newark. 108 00:04:42,433 --> 00:04:44,466 There's Bill. 109 00:04:44,466 --> 00:04:46,500 A lot of dancing in those days. 110 00:04:46,500 --> 00:04:50,100 Here the famous theory teacher-- Gretchen McGee. 111 00:04:50,100 --> 00:04:52,900 She recognized Bill's talent immediately, 112 00:04:52,900 --> 00:04:54,733 and she would give assignments. 113 00:04:54,733 --> 00:04:55,900 Well, Bill would come in 114 00:04:55,900 --> 00:04:57,566 with some beautiful things, you know, 115 00:04:57,566 --> 00:05:00,066 and some of those became tunes later on. 116 00:05:00,066 --> 00:05:01,800 "Very Early" was one of them. 117 00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:07,566 [jazz music] 118 00:05:07,566 --> 00:05:11,500 Bill played that thing like he had read it for all his life. 119 00:05:11,500 --> 00:05:12,733 I said, "Whoa," you know, 120 00:05:12,733 --> 00:05:15,933 "This guy's in another class of musicians." 121 00:05:15,933 --> 00:05:21,233 [jazz music] 122 00:05:21,233 --> 00:05:22,400 I had the learning years. 123 00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:24,900 So seven good years with Bill-- 124 00:05:24,900 --> 00:05:27,166 three in high school, four in college. 125 00:05:27,166 --> 00:05:30,233 Nobody else had the seven years with him. 126 00:05:30,233 --> 00:05:32,733 So it was... 127 00:05:32,733 --> 00:05:35,233 At the time, you know, we were having fun, 128 00:05:35,233 --> 00:05:36,566 but now we look back on it, 129 00:05:36,566 --> 00:05:38,900 and we know now that that was golden. 130 00:05:38,900 --> 00:05:44,900 [music continues]