I was very young at the time, and I mainly appreciated their vocal qualities, even though I was already living as they did - as black performers in a white world.

Short (accompanied by Beverly Peer on bass and Dick Sheridan on drums) became an institution at the Carlyle as Feyer had been before him and remained there as a featured performer for over 35 years. Then Allen used his recording "I Happen To Like New York" for opening title of Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). He began performing as a busker after leaving home at the age of eleven for Chicago with his mother's permission.

Johnson Andy Razaf Fats Waller Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn presenting their work not in a polemical way but as simply the obvious equal of that of their white contemporaries. He also championed African-American composers of the same period such as Eubie Blake James P.