Like many musicians, I’ve had some odd moments in my career, perhaps none odder than hearing the great Irish tenor John McCormack for the first time in a Moscow hotel room about two in the morning. I was with guitarist Oliver Gannon and drummer John Sumner, the three of us well on the way to being in our cups. The occasion was a concert tour of the Soviet Union in September of 1986 with Vancouver saxophonist Fraser McPherson, or …

When it comes to being put in the mood for listening to certain music, I’m ridiculously suggestible. A kettle whistling in the kitchen will make me think of “Five O’Clock Whistle” and the next thing I know, I’m happily listening to Ivie Anderson with the 1940 Duke Ellington band while the kettle boils over, splashing hot water all over the stove. Believe me, it could be worse….. much, much worse. Sometimes the trigger can be more abstract and subliminal, …