I never had the pleasure of seeing Mingus in person. I know how good he sounded on records. I did see the late Ray Brown, playing with Oscar Peterson and Ed Thigpen on drums, in a club in Seattle in 1961 or '62. For me, Ray Brown's playing was a thing of beauty. I cannot recall ever seeing a person become one with his instrument in quite the same way. He could appear to caress the strings, with seemingly little effort, and all these wonderful, complex sounds would emerge. Of course, as a lowly G.I. on weekend pass, I was blissfully unaware of how highly regarded he - and they - were at the time. I just knew I was enthralled by what I saw and heard.