I joined his band when I was 21. I'll tell you the essence of my experience with Basie. I don't know if it's the essence but it's certainly the beginning. I was at the Apollo Theater working for a week in Joe Thomas' band. Also in the band was Charlie Fowlkes, who had been with Basie. Basie was on a hiatus and he was about to form another band. So Charlie Fowlkes told me where the rehearsal was going to be, and invited me to the rehearsal. So I went, and it was nice. Pretty uneventful. I can't remember, you know, I don't think ... at this particular time there were a couple of jobs I wanted. The job with Charlie Ventura. Benny Green had been there and he was about to leave, so I really wanted a small situation to play in. Then I was waiting to hear from Illinois Jacquet also. In the meantime, the Basie thing comes up, I make the rehearsal and that's fine. Charlie Fowlkes tells me when the next rehearsal is. And I come back and I make that also. I don't know how many rehearsals we did, but pretty soon we started working, and the first date I played with Basie was October 31 I think, 1951. So I think at this time we would go out of town for maybe one night or two nights a weekend, and come back in town. Well this went on for just a little while, a couple of weeks. In the meantime, from Basie I'm trying to find out if I'm hired, if I have a job or shall I tell Illinois Jacquet that, you know, no. But there was a strange quirk about Basie. If he had something that you wanted, he would sort of play a cat and mouse with you, you know, dangle it in front of you. Anyway, he knew I wanted him to say yes, Benny, you're hired. So the first time I, well you know I was sort of in awe of him anyway. I think I was all of 21 and he was the world famous Count Basie, so I would sort of find myself next to him by my own design, and I would say well "Mr. Basie, how do you like the trombone section?" He'd say "it sounds all right." And that's all I got out of that conversation. So maybe the next weekend I got brave enough to say "well Mr. Basie, are you satisfied with the trombones?" He said "yeah, it sounds pretty good." That's all I got out of that one. Next time I went to him, I can't remember, each time I would disguise it. But finally I said "Mr. Basie, what I'm trying to find out is, you know, am I hired? Am I with the band?" He said "you're here aren't you kid?" And every time after that for about four or five times, that's what I'd get. "You're here aren't you, kid?" So finally I stopped asking him. And during the twelve years, I don't think he ever said "yes, Benny, you've got a job. You're hired." But he was a wonderful man. I loved him. I was always in awe of older musicians. My dad died when I was seven, and I didn't have any big brothers or uncles. So the jazz musicians -- Lester Young became my uncle. Illinois Jacquet and Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. I have some funny stories about the Bebop thing. I'm a Bebop baby. Although I was born in New Orleans, it was the beginning of the 1940's when I was ten or eleven and so forth that Bebop started. So I was deeply interested in Bebop, so much so that I wanted to really, and they had all sorts of things, they wore berets and horn rimmed glasses...