ART BLAKEY came out with this one when I was about 8 and then when Jimmy SMith did his version in the early 60's I was already playing the ACCORDION. So my folks allowed me to switch to standing keyboard (my Dad started collecting Jimmy SMith albums)
I tried playing like Jimmy SMith , (I even did a jazz version of Petere amd the Wolf at a recital--I got some polite applause (these were all first generation Russian and Poles in the audience)
My mother's youngest sister was in high school when i was a kid, and she and her girlfriends used to babysit for my sister and i. They had one of those old wind-up record players that played 45s and 78s. In the house, you could plug it in and play records, and it would charge the battery. Outside, you cranked a handle to get the turntable up to speed, and there was green light for 45 and one for 78. When the green light came on, you switched on the juice from battery and you were ready to rock and roll. They'd put a stack of 45s on the spindle, and then laugh themselves silly as my sister and i jumped around "dancing." They were into all the new music, like this one . . .
My uncle Stash used to collect Firehouse Five Plus Two. These were Dixieland albums that were all 78 RPM and, as I recall, were ppressed in red bakelite (I guess). The albums were as thick as a pizza box and contained maybe 10 records.
Uncle Stash was my favorite uncle, He divorced his wife and moved to Albuquerque where he was a mining geologist for the USGS. Obviously he played a big role in my life
