"I was in California with Sonny Rollins when I first met Eric Dolphy. He was working with Chico Hamilton. He sounded like Cannonball Adderley then. He invited me to his house and the music was so weird his mother made him practice in the garage!

"Eric could play some funk and get deep down and play some blues, but he didn't want to. He really wanted to get into Ornette's thing. He was a better musician than Ornette, but he didn't have that swing that communicates.

"Some stuff he wrote sounded square, like kindergarten music, but the way he would play it! He was such a jubilant, happy guy. I liked his spirit. A lot of people wouldn't give Eric gigs. They thought he was trying to be weird on purpose.

"I met Ornette and Don Cherry in California with Sonny Rollins, before they came to New York. I had no idea where they were going, but their music didn't seem that avant-garde. I could hear melody and form. I went to Ornette's house to practice. The first thing he did when I came in was play all of Bird's licks. And he had that Bird sound."