Captain Ken #22 - A Love of Music

On another occasion when berthed in Boston, Massachusetts, my friend and I were outside the Storyville night club, where the Count Basie Orchestra was expected to play.  A friendly chap at the door, approached us and asked if we were English, having heard us talk.  He asked if we had heard of  a place called Warrington, as he had been stationed there, while serving in the U.S. Air Force , and loved every minute.  This must of course been Burtonwood.

We managed to get a table, right at the front, and as one of the greatest swing bands in the world prepared to play.  Count Basie himself introduced the man who had just been voted the finest Jazz singer in the world.............Joe Williams.  Of course we then realised it had been Joe, with whom we’d been talking, and he gave a special wave to us, and said ‘Hi Boys’, as the band began to play, and we realized that we were probably the only people to know that the world’s top jazz singer, loved Warrington.  We also noted that the secret of Count Basie's unique sound, was that his percussion section was led by his brilliant guitarist,  Freddy Green.

Sometime  later we berthed in New York’s Manhattan, and loved to frequent Greenwich Village.  While we were  actually in the  pub, ‘Cafe Bohemia’ listening to Donald Byrd’s group, playing , we noticed Donald say to the group, ’Miles has just come in’, then immediately changed the tune they were currently  playing, to ‘Bye Bye, blackbird’, which was Miles Davis’s most recent hit tune.  Later, as I collected two pints from the bar, I actually stumbled in to the man standing next to me.  Realizing who it was, I apologised, saying  ‘Sorry Miles’.  He replied in a most agreeable manner, ‘That’s alright.’  

Although that was the full extent of our conversation, I was quite astonished, as it was top news at the time that Miles Davis, considered the world’s top trumpet player, and had been assaulted by the New York police, in the doorway of the ‘Bird Land’ night club, on Broadway, where he was top of the bill. The Press had reported that Miles had had become very bitter after the experience, so it was good to find him so friendly.