When I first moved to New York in 1950, Dave Lambert became a good friend, and I met a lot of New York jazz musicians through Dave. One of the most charming and talented ones was Blossom Dearie. She had a light, sweet singing voice, and her touch on the piano reminded me of Ellis Larkins. She liked humorous songs as well as artistic ones, and one of everyone’s favorites was “I’m Hip,” which was written by Bob Dorough and Dave Frishberg.

Blossom spent some time in Paris, and when I was touring Europe with the Gerry Mulligan Sextet in 1956, as soon as we got to Paris, I called the number Dave Lambert had given me for Blossom. She answered the phone in French, but when I spoke, she switched to English, with a strong Parisian accent. I said, “Blossom, it’s Bill!” She dropped the accent and laughed. “In Paris,” she said, “If I speak English without the accent, nobody understands what I’m saying.”

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From Royce Campbell:

When Henry Mancini was checking in to a hotel, there was a solo pianist playing in the lobby. He was playing Mancini’s “Moon River” and totally butchering it. Mancini said, “He’s killing me softly with my song.”

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Michael Rose sent me this:

While I was working at the Roseland Ballroom NYC with the Jimmy Palmer Orchestra in 1959, an irate dancer came up to the bandstand and said, “Where is my ‘Whispering’? This is the third time that I’ve asked you!” Not having an arrangement of ‘Whispering’ in his library, Jimmy instructed the rhythm section to begin a “society tempo” in E flat, and then I asked the sax section to play the melody on clarinets in unison. Before the second chorus came up, I suggested to the brass section that we insert cup mutes and on the next chorus play the Charlie Parker line on ‘Groovin’ High,’ his contrafact on ‘Whispering.’ Palmer was so surprised at the added effect that he told the band to play a third chorus. After the final chord of third chorus, the happy customer came running up to the bandstand clapping his hands, and shouted, “Thanks Jimmy, that was the best arrangement that I ever heard!”

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From my article “To Russia Without Love”:

Benny Goodman had celebrated his 53rd birthday at the opening night party at the U.S. embassy in Moscow. I was 34 then and thought 53 was pretty old. I asked Teddy Wilson if he thought Benny’s strange behavior could be attributable to age.

Teddy snorted. “The man is the same today as he was in 1936,” he said. “You just have to learn to ask for enough money to make it worth your while.”

I laughed. “Man, your price must really be up there by this time! Why do you keep taking jobs with him?”

Teddy smiled.

“I have a lot of alimony to pay,” he said. “Also, these jobs allow me to play with a class of musician I can’t afford to hire myself.”

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I found this on the internet:

Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut were at a party given by a hedge fund billionaire on Shelter Island. Vonnegut said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host may have made more money yesterday than your novel ‘Catch-22’ has earned in its entire history?” And Heller said, “I have something he can never have. I have enough.”

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Herb Gardner, a fine trombone and piano player, passed away on Sept. 23, 2025 at the age of 88. He was a good friend, and he contributed many good stories to this column over the years I’ve been writing it. This is one of his earliest ones:

Herb Gardner tells about a cornet player who, during a rendition of Louis Armstrong’s “Dippermouth Blues,” was attempting to play what Louis had played on the original recording, with limited success. There is a break on the record, during which someone shouts, “Oh, play that thing!” When Herb’s struggling cornet player made that break, someone in the band shouted, “Oh, learn that thing!”