“It was horrendous. You went to work at 9pm and you played six forty-five minute sets for a room half full of people who were maybe paying attention, but more often not. You did this five or six nights a week. You left the joint at 3:00 a.m. with a few dollars in your pocket and a greasy dinner in your stomach. No, I wouldn’t want to return to those days. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed playing the music, but it was a constant hustle it would have been better to avoid.”
~Roy Haynes on the mid-century "golden age" of jazz