“One night Jimmy Dorsey came down to hear Bird. Bird’s bandleader knew what was happening. He called ‘Cherokee,’ which featured Bird. Bird, of course, played like a man possessed. Jimmy Dorsey came back to the dressing room, introduced himself, and said to Bird, ‘Here man, you need this more than I do,’ and gave Bird his brand new Padless Selmer. I was with Bird the next day when he put it in pawn. I begged him not to do it. His own horn was a wreck, held together with tape, gummed paper, etc. This didn’t matter to him.”