Red Norvo discusses his discovering Charles Mingus.

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Red Norvo discusses arranger Ed Sauter.

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Red Norvo discusses blending musicians of different eras.

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Q: “I think one of the best arrangers ever is the one you mentioned before – Ed Sauter, who had just such an incredible mind somehow. He was so modern and his charts still stand up now even though it’s forty years later…”

A: “At the time that we started this band, the big band, most everybody was writing in the phase of Fletcher Henderson, which means two lines basically. Now, I’m not ... I don’t mean that as a detriment to anybody’s writing or anything. It’s just … it was a style, which was a good swinging style, so to speak. When we started I wanted to write strictly linear lines and that set, we got Eddie studying, I paid for his lessons and everything. And later, the same fellow talked to Jimmy Geofridge [ph], Roy Rogers [ph], a lot of people on the Coast, Dr Wesley La Violette, a great counter-panelist and teacher. And Eddie incorporated anything. A lot of the fellows in the sax section used to say that my part was just as interesting as a first alto part, which is fine. And I think maybe that’s the reason because they're writing that right now today more, and I think that's one of reasons why the band sounds good.”