Bud Freeman discusses the early days of his jazz career.

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Bud Freeman discusses his career drive.

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Bud Freeman on being a saxophone player.

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Q: “You had an amazing combination in the twenties and thirties of these incredibly skilled composers as you mentioned – the Gershwins, the Berlins, et cetera – and in many cases, the orchestras that played them were really jazz players. Did you ever work in pit bands and that sort of thing?”

A: “Well, I did. As a matter of fact, I told a story that I had at the club about playing in a show called The International Review and the star of the show was the famous tap dancer, Harry Richmond, a song and dance man. He would do the straw hat and cane, pat another slipper routine and one of the tunes in the show was a waltz called ‘Exactly Like You’ - which, of course, has become a jazz standard because it was changed by jazz musicians, adapted and put it into 4/4. Well, Tommy Dorsey, now, we're all in the pit of the show, and Tommy Dorsey had a solo. He would stand up in the pit and play this solo on the waltz, ‘Exactly Like You’ again, to Harry Richmond's very soft dance routine and he played it so beautifully that it seemed to detract from Harry Richmond and they were thinking of cutting it out. Well, of course, they didn't thank goodness. Well there again, that has become a jazz classic and I play it to this day.”