I had a great time with Elvin Jones, but I sacrificed a fair amount, looking back, to have joined his band. I recorded my first CD in 1990. That was primarily because the executive director, or the A & R person, Gary Gersh, from Geffon Records, he heard my concert at the Jazz and Heritage Festival, and he wanted to sign me to Geffon Records, which was - they were a pop label. Because everything was handled through GRP, I ended up signing with RCA Novus. So I put the CD out, and I had a band on the road. I had produced Marcus Roberts first record. Elvin Jones was on that. So Elvin Jones knew me as a producer. We were playing London. We were playing Ronnie Scott. Ronnie Scott, youd play, if Im not mistaken, Tuesday through Sunday. No, it was Monday through Saturday, and you had Sunday off. Thats what it was. So we had a gig that brought me into <span class="otherMatch" rel="popover" id="other_963_498917">London</span> on Saturday, which was their last - Elvin Jones last night at the club, and I had a day off. So I walked down to the club. I said, "Hey, Elvin Jones. " He said, What are you doing over here? " I said, "Were playing the club next week. " He said, What? " I said, "Yeah, I play trombone. " He said, "Well, wheres it at? " I said, "Its at the hotel. I just got in. " "What good is it doing there? " Okay. I get the idea. So I went back to the hotel and got the horn and sat in. We played Green Chimneys, Thelonious Monk, which I didnt know, and of course Kent Jordan told me the wrong changes. What can you do? So I played on that. There was a record date or something coming up. I think thats how it started. I think they had a record session and they wanted a trombone. They called me. They said, "We want you to play on the record. Not long after that, Elvin Jones was - actually, its ironic now that I think about it - it was similar to the Art Blakey situation, but it looked different, in that he was changing his band over. So he asked me to join the band. When I think about it, at that particular time, I didnt have a lot of gigs, but I was - just me and J. J. [J.J. J.J. Johnson] at the time were the only trombone players that had groups that were performing. Slide Hampton at the time was playing with Dizzys All Stars. Steve Turre had - he was with the All Dizzys All Stars also. This was toward the tail end of Ray Andersons playing. So there was not actually trombone players with gigs. But I chose to join Elvin Jones band, and I stayed for a while. So it was on the one hand, as I said, a big sacrifice to leave my band and to stop doing that, but at the other point, I learned just so much. Elvin Jones - when you hear Minions Dominion, the rapport that Elvin Jones and I had was just - it was happening, to me.