bernie arai wrote: We saw Mingus twice in the 70s, once in a club in Cleveland (I forget the name) and once at Gilly's in Dayton. Blackwell played with him on the Cleveland gig, Danny Richmond was with him in Dayton. And as far as I can find, there are no recordings of Blackwell with Mingus. :( We met Mingus, even took him out for dinner a few times. At Gilly's I met his pianist of the time, a young Don Pullen. I had a wonderful time with him, just talking with him on his breaks. The audience probably numbered in the low twenties, it wasn't much of a turnout, and Don was very generous with his time. Btw, Mingus went into quite a spiel about treating the saw as a musical instrument. Blackwell's solo was very sweet, as I recall, and it was a serious performance. I also recall that the other members of the group seemed terrified of Mingus. Between Cleveland and Dayton we caught some amazing shows back then. I saw the Cecil Taylor trio at Gilly's, met Robert Jr. Lockwood in Kinsman (a suburb in Cleveland), and hung out with Pharaoh Sanders when he was artist-in-residence at Western Reserve (!). The Cecil Taylor gig was memorable: He played two sets, one "tune" per set, and each set lasted about 45 minutes. Suffice to say, The Man was awesome. The club was nearly empty then too, maybe about fifteen people in all, counting some whores and their pimps. But truly one of the oddest shows we ever caught was Sun Ra performing in the basement of a Lum's restaurant in Ann Arbor MI. We were hanging out in Ann Arbor, someone noticed a sign that announced Sun Ra playing that evening at Lum's. Lum's is long gone now, it was a franchise restaurant specializing in the Standard American Diet (the SAD), and it was the last place where anyone would expect to see Sun Ra. So we called the restaurant, found out it was true (the owner was a Sun Ra fan and managed to snag him for a one-nighter), and we went. It was unforgettable, on a par with seeing Captain Beefheart. It was the full Arkestra too, there was hardly room for the audience (it was a packed room, I'm happy to say). I was lucky, I got to hear a lot of my heroes in live shows back then. Here's one of my favorite stories about the difference between shows then & now: In 1970, January I think, my brother and I went to Detroit to catch a show at the Grande Ballroom. The show opened with an excellent group from Ann Arbor, name long forgotten, that played a very progressive jazz/rock blend years before I heard the word "fusion". After them, a newcomer from England, a fellow named Joe Cocker, who had an extraordinary band (they got two encores) and was in top form himself. After Joe, The Who, when they still had Moonie on the kit. They had recently released Tommy, and they performed a good chunk of it that night, along with a good selection of their hits. It was a superb performance, another unforgettable night. Oh yeh, the difference: My ticket cost $6, and no, I didn't forget any zeros. :) Reminiscingly, dp