“Well, you’re a local musician now, we can offer you any kind of money. ” And when I wasn’t working on the road, I’d have to take it to keep the job. I wanted to be able to say, “I have something; I don’t have to play at your particular club. " I got married again, we had a baby, and I just wasn't into being on the road for a while. And I think it was good for me to get off the scene. When I was out there with the Temptations, I was the drummer, and all the cats tried to match the Temptations. Getting out kind of got their minds off me for a minute, so they didn’t get burned out listening to just me. But in 1978 I started going out on the road again, and I’ve been on and off the road ever since. In April, I go with Diana Boss again for another tour. “I want to be entertained.” LJortland is a good place for a ■ jazz person to work; we’ve got more going on here than in most other places, and I feel I’m responsible for a lot of it...Some of the players around town have trouble getting enough gigs, they don't have much of a following even though they’re good jazz players. But sometimes the musicians hurt the gigs themselves...You're going to a gig in jeans and tennis shoes, play for forty minutes then take forty-five minutes off...who wants to go to a club to hear that? If you’re doing a gig, be clean, take care of business, and do some things people can relate to. This is where the traditional jazz thing comes in. When I first came back, everybody was trying to play a lot of avant-garde stuff. I couldn’t relate to it, I couldn’t understand what they were playing, and a lot of those musicians didn’t understand it either. They thought it was the hip thing to do...I like to keep the high- hat going, a little pulse, something you can pop your fingers to. They’d say that was old-fashioned, but most of those guys played avant-garde because they couldn’t keep time. That thing was just an excuse.../ put myself in the position of a customer in the audience, and when I go to hear somebody, I want to leave With a good feeling, rather than saying, “Wow, that was really hip." I want to be entertained. I look at people like Cannonball Adderly, because Cannonball had a nice rapport with the audience, and the people always came out to hear him. Even though they might not understand everything he was doing technically, they enjoyed his presentation. And that’s a big part of the music business. You have to do something good musically, but still entertain. If people don't understand what you’re doing, it turns them off. The main thing is that they feel what you’re doing. Any instrument is just an amplifier: it should amplify what you feel inside. /like to think of myself as a group player. I’m not out to do a whole bunch of flash so they’ll look at me. I don't have to prove anything to anybody. As long as I prove it to'myself, I’ll be happy and I can sleep good at night. So I've gotten a little past the competitive stage...! listen a lot, I've got very big ears because of studying so hard, really studying rhythms. So when the piano player or sax player is doing something with an idea, I know where he’s going to end up before he gets there. I'll follow right along with what somebody’s doing, and when they're finished I’ll extend that rhythm, like passing it back and forth. Somebody makes a I get a big reward out of seeing somebody grow. But one of the stipulations I make is that once a student of mine gets it together, if somebody comes to him and wants some answers, I want it passed on to them. I try to teach a player to be a good person. statement, I'll take that idea and add to it, then they’ll pick it up right where I leave off.... A lot of times when guys play, it’s not really a unit sound. The guy’s out front doing a solo, and the drummer behind him is trying to solo too, or at least get some attention... This is one of the problems around town today because there's only a handful of groups that really work as a unit all the time. The rest have to gig around, and the music suffers from it. You get five guys, they all have a basic idea of what’s going to be done with the melody, but most of the time these groups are feeling their way through the night. And the audience can feel that too. If more groups would actually get it together, it would make it nicer for the listeners. But the problem is mostly economic. What has helped pick things up is the Jazz Society of Oregon. They were shuffling along for a while, but when Jim and Mary Brown first got that Otter Crest thing going in 1978, it really gave them a big shot in the arm. Another person who helped sustain jazz here was George Page...But the people who come out and support jazz here are the people who grew up on jazz, and there’s enough clubs now so that those people are coming back out. These are older people, some older than me, not just the beer-drinking set. And they are sophisticated people. ..they haven’t heard me really dig in.” Bebop and straightahead jazz is my favorite kind of music, but I like to play all styles, and there's no conQuality Used Paperbacks New and Collector Comics Fantasy Games SELECTED HIGH QUALITY PRE-READ BOOKS PRINTS; OLD (LEAD) TOY SOLDIERS; MILITARIA (503) 232-6749 USED RECORDS 3714 SE Powell Blvd. 234-1660 SALEH 2 for $1.00 Rock & Soul Out of print, collectable We * buy * sell trade * locate Mon-Sat: 11-8 8029 S.E. 17th CSQ furniture and architectural pieces in wood and glass. MULTNOMAH NE 223rd Ave between Halsey and Glisan Sts At Fairview, near Gresham Phone: 667-7700 SOTH MIVUSMV /1 $1.50 Value Good for 2 admissions One time only ] GREYHOUND। RACINGl MAY7TH! THRU! 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