Where were you on the evening of Friday, August 1, 2013?

Well, unless you climbed into a time machine and traveled to 1922 Chicago to dig Louis Armstrong blowing second cornet at the Lincoln Gardens with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, I bet my August 1 beat yours, for I was standing next to George Avakian—creator of the LP, producer of Duke and Pops, and a true gentleman—listening to Wycliffe Gordon and his band play one of the most exaltedly exciting sets of jazz I’ve ever heard.