My father . . . had the first black newspaper, The Birmingham Reporter, in Birmingham and he was very supportive to my brother and I when we were growing up . . . he encouraged us in playing. We had one clarinet between us . . . and then later on my dad bought another clarinet and demanded that we play "The Old Rugged Cross" at church. I remember one night he got us up out of the bed in the middle of the night, and there standing at the front door in the front room was the great W. C. Handy, the Father of the Blues. He brought him in there and shook my hand. And I remember him being a terrifically big fellow with a Hamburg hat on, you see.