I was born in New Orleans, so that made it easy. Music was everywhere. And New Orleans has been, is and has been a tourist city, so in tourist cities there is much more employment for musicians. So there were a lot of musicians there, and there still are because it still is a place of employment. But music was sort of something you did.  Everybody in the block had an instrument. It wasn't that much ... well there were many after school programs. Dance was one, and music certainly was another, and sports. But music fit in with all of that because the bands, well not the grammar school bands, all we played for was commencement exercises. And I had an odd experience maybe about two years ago. After I played little parade drums in grammar school, when I went to high school, I played the bass drum. And I remember one of the pieces we played was "Poet and Peasant. " This was at Booker T. Washington High School. Maybe two years ago, fifty years later after I played "Poet and Peasant," I played, as part of the New Orleans Festival, I played a performance at my high school. And I was telling the audience that it   seemed in my mind that it had taken me fifty years to get from the space back sort of behind stage, to up front. The last time I was there I was in the background playing my little bass drum now here, it's sort of achieved a little status tonight. It was great for me, you know, everybody wants to look good in their home town. So that happened to me.  Actually, to answer your first question, I started playing when I was about eight years old. I played parade drums. I went to high school and played a bass drum. At about twelve, because I know I'll anticipate the next question, when did I start playing trombone, because I'm a trombonist, at about twelve, I was at an uncle's house. And as curious as kids are, I was no different. You know how kids lean backwards on a sofa and you can see what's behind it? Because all kids do that. Anyway, I saw this trombone case behind the sofa. So I inquired as to what it was and my uncle told me it was a trombone he had bought for one of his sons, who later decided that he wanted to play sports and not trombone. So I showed an interest in it. So he took it out and let me see it. Then he asked me if I would like to take it home, or take lessons, and I said yes. And I did. And I studied with a trombonist named Eddie Pierson. He's only on a couple of records in New Orleans, but a very fine trombonist. He played in the idiom of Trummy Young and that kind of style, very lyrical. Anyway I was very fortunate to have -- hey I just noticed that I'm going to blend into this with [inaudible] green -- it's not funny being green.  Anyway, I guess I should wait for your questions, but if you don't mind I'll just tell you.