I soon learned why he didn't want to drive up this street. The block was literally packed with drug addicts. I had never seen anything like this before in my life but the irony of this is that as I walked up the street with my , or I should say Bob's, bass, the people literally bowed to me as though I were royalty or something and all wished me to play well. I arrived at Minton's and went to where we would perform.
I met Monty and took my bass out of the case only to notice that Bob had forgotten to put the end-pin in the bass case. So I asked for two telephone books to prop the bass up a bit. We began the first song only to have the bass continually slide off of the books.

This went on all night and I felt so bad because
I could never really get to the music. I sounded horrible and thought that I would never work in New York again. Sam Jones ( Bassist ) was in the audience and afterwards welcomed me to New York and said "don't worry homes, it's gonna be alright."