I'm eternally grateful to the penal system in California for saving my life.

Certainly, as expected, there were no real surprises here.

I was an admirer of Art Pepper even before I went to California, when he was still in Kenton's band. His playing is joyous, great.

Sometimes insiders get it right, and sometimes they don't,

While in prison, we had an excellent pianist named Jimmy Bunn, who also recorded with Bird. Jimmy would play a small accordion, and he, Art and I would play all day, nothing but ballads.

Art led the way for me to recover. He got out of prison before me and started traveling all over the world before I did. He showed me by example that it could be done, and I'll always love him for that.