Here’s Count Basie with Little Jimmy Rushing (Mr. 5X5!) on vocals. Sent for you yesterday and here you come today. This tune rocks.

Basie and Rushing were both favourites of my father’s. He’d say, “Listen to Basie’s piano, son, just listen”.

He used to play another record all the time, Brussels Blues, with Jimmy Rushing and Benny Goodman. “We’re going to rock, we’re going to rock this joint, we’re going to roll, we’re going to roll this joint, we’re goin’ to swing, we’re goin’ to swing this joint, we’re goin’ to rock…”. It was live and it was 1958 and it was rockin’ and these guys were hot. “Goin’ to Brussells, have me a real good time…”

http://youtu.be/Cl7XHjtf9t8

My father was a working guy. He had his own business, making aluminum windows and doors and when the business got good he’d work long hours at it, and he’d come home and he’d be dog tired. Then he had this whole other side. He gobbled up books. In fact, it seemed like everyone around me was reading when I was growing up. My family fostered a love of books which I consider a great gift. I know lots of people who don’t read much, and I think they miss out on all the worlds books take you to. He loved books and he loved his old records.

This is a photo of my father playing clarinet. I don’t know when it was taken but he was obviously a young man at the time. My mom used to hand-colour photos as a work-from-home kind of job -at some point, someone in the family – maybe it was my mom – told me that this was one of the photos she had hand-coloured. This picture hung in our house as long as I can remember. I have very few things from those days, but this is one that I treasure.

Those were the days of jazz and poker and hanging out at the track and betting the ponies. My father knew quite an array of characters from those days, including some with resumes from a darker side of life. When he told stories about those days, he would end every sentence with the word “and” so nobody else could get a word in edgewise (us Knapiks would much rather talk than listen…I remember family gatherings where all of us would shout to have our stories heard. I came by my love of storytelling honestly).

Tonight when I came across some Jimmy Rushing material on the YouTube machine, all those memories came tumbling back.