Wow. Lawrence Welk.

I’ve never been able to watch The Lawrence Welk Show long enough to see if that’s Eddie Miller blowing sax. But this was one of Lester Young’s favorite shows. Yes it was. He loved Perry Como too. A friend of mine lived next door to him. Every time he dropped by Prez’s pad, he was listening to a damn Perry Como 78. Listening to it over and over. Obsessed with it. Said he was trying to learn it. My friend couldn’t hear what Prez was hearing and went back upstairs and listened to bebop. I wish I knew what Perry Como song it was that Lester Young was listening to over and over. No doubt it slipped into one of those airy, lazy solos of his, perfect and gorgeous and so square but you’d never know it. Lester Young, a bottle of gin, a saxophone and this, The Lawrence Welk Show. Geniuses can be so strange.

Uh oh, the tap dancer.

One of those records nobody talks about.