I'm always amazed to see these 16 year old threads revived.
I became a jazz fan in the mid-sixties. With some high-school buddies, I'd often hitch-hike to Buffalo or Toronto from Dundas to hear performers like Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Jim Hall, Cannonball Adderley, Nina Simone, Bill Evans, Junior Mance, Jimmy Smith, Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Joe Williams, Gabor Szabo, Chico Hamilton, Herbie Hancock, Barney Kessel. . .
In 1968-69 I was hitch-hiking overseas and in London I broke my "Pound a day" rule and went to Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. I was watching Jack McDuff play when I noticed three familiar faces at the next table. I knew I had seen them, probably on an album cover or in downbeat magazine.
Then Jack McDuff said, "I'm going to ask a friend of mine to come up and do a tune or two. That's John Hendricks sitting over there with Bill Cosby and Clarence Williams III."