I had an easy time establishing myself among the Lower East Side jazz players that I did come to play with. I mean from the first time I met them all, it was again kind of like a family almost. Like I was a part of the family already, even though I had just moved here. So, like I mean I remember meeting William Parker on the street the first kind of week or week-and-a-half I was here. And I stopped him, and we just talked and got to know each other. And we pretty much hit it off like right away.

So, among these people, it was almost like this whole thing was meant to be, and it was just no resistance whatsoever. Now, in the overall New York jazz scene, that’s a whole different story. And the scene was at that point very Wyntonized, to say the least, I mean as far as what happened uptown. And then, even downtown New York, there was kind of a split between a Black scene and a White scene, even though a lot of musicians were friends, and it wasn’t problematic there. It was more of a perception by the media. ((Cast All These Musicians))

So, I would say I was at home down here. But you know, that doesn’t quite translate to the overall media perception of what the overall New York jazz scene was like in the early ’80s.