Sneak Peek: Phil Schaap Podcast

Jo Reed: I know that Joe Jones was Count Basie's drummer, was a mentor, a dear friend, and a babysitter for you. How did this even come to be?

Phil Schaap: Joe Jones impact and teaching to me is much more important in my adolescence than my childhood. But, of course, that I knew him as a very young fella is the more charming aspect of the story. And the story goes like this, my family attended the Randall's Island jazz festival, and somehow my mother and I got backstage. Remember, I'm kindergarten, first grade age. She's holding my hand and a guy was talking to my mother and he said, "Well, you've gotten backstage, but if you really like to get into the inner sanctum and meet the great Joe Williams, I can accommodate you."  So my mother said, "Well, that's all very well and good." But of course, Jimmy Rushing was the more appropriate singer for the Count Basie's Orchestra. And standing a few feet away was Joe Jones. And he said, "Madam, I heard that. That's amazing. Thank you. You seem to know about our music." And then my mother said to Joe, "It's true, but my little boy here knows more about it than I do." And he looked down at this five-year-old and said, "Okay, Mister." I wouldn't be called Mister again for another 15 years. "Okay, Mister. who's Prince Robinson?"  And I said, "The tenor saxophone in McKinney's Cotton Pickers." And it might be the only time I ever quieted Joe Jones, he was more than stunned.  And then he turned to my mother and said, "You got a new babysitter."