Blue Note. A Story of Modern Jazz (BBC) Page #3

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and we had to go to their apartment

where there was nothing to eat,

two eggs in the fridge

and we cooked up the eggs, a little

bread, a little cheese on the side.

They didn't have any money.

They were very poor.

Anyway, the war came, the war,

and Alfred got drafted

and, then, he got shipped to Texas,

El Paso,

and, of course,

Alfred kept writing to me.

Compton, Texas, and I...

My mother thought he was

wonderful, by the way.

She said, "He's a wonderful guy".

Anyway, there we were

in El Paso, Texas,

and Alfred and I got married.

That's a test pressing

of a Blue Note record.

See, we used to get them

from New York,

and we would listen

to them in El Paso.

The record business was still

in his mind and life,

even though he was in the army.

That's...

Oh, and here's Alfred and Frank.

See, they were very good friends.

And here's Alfred and I.

We had this crazy cat.

We called it Victor

because we got him on VE Day

at the end of the war.

That cat was like my kid,

you know? It was...

I really wanted children,

but I had a cat.

It wasn't a terrible split-up,

for that matter,

cos we liked each other

an awful lot,

and Alfred loved me,

and I was terribly fond of him.

But the reasons are obscure,

and as I say,

I don't intend to discuss

my deepest personal life now.

TELEPHONE RINGS:

Yes, Alfred?

Wh... Sorry, Vanguard.

Hello? Oh, same person.

I just talked to you before.

I'll see you later. Bye.

I don't know who it is.

There's some strange people call.

APPLAUSE:

What you doing?

MUSIC:
The Sidewinder

by Lee Morgan

My name is Louis A Donaldson,

better known to jazz fans

as Lou Donaldson.

Hey, Lou! Look at the hat!

Who do we have here?

Mighty cool today.

Who do we have here?

Grandpa!

Yeah, you... You're the grandchild.

What's happening, Grandpa?

MUSIC DROWNS SPEECH

Yeah, I'm on the games

with the younger players.

Got to get it going.

He's still there. He won't budge!

THEY LAUGH:

Blue Note helped me

through some years.

My kids were young,

I was trying to

establish myself in New York,

just generally,

and so it came at a great time.

It was with a lot of great musicians,

so it was people that I didn't

really work in their groups,

but just to know them.

I mean, I'm sitting back

like people looking,

saying "Well, I played with Tommy."

I mean...that was an honour. Yeah.

You know? Come on. That was...

So it was just an honour to be here,

and I was a young bass player, and...

It fed my kids.

But you wanted to...

You knew you were not going to leave

until that record date was through.

That's right. Yeah. If they had

eight tunes or nine tunes...

You going to make nine tunes!

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