| This Wednesday the 19th is the seventh anniversary of his passing (6/23/1910 - 12/19/2000). I was fortunate to get to meet Milt a few years before he died. Sometime in the mid to late '90's, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Baruch College, and the organist/pianist Larry Goldings got the call to play the post-award ceremony reception. I was playing tenor with Larry a lot in those days (this was a few years before I started playing the bass seriously), and he called me and the excellent drummer Andy Watson to do the gig. When Larry called me he said "who hires an organ player to play for Milt Hinton?" We were well into the gig when Milt finally showed up, with I think his daughter pushing him in a wheelchair. In short order he was sitting right next to us, listening and making us pretty nervous. After one of my solos, Milt's daughter told me that after listening for a few moments across the room he told her to wheel him over to where we were, that we sounded good and he wanted to check us out. He sat and listened to our whole set, and afterwards couldn't have been any nicer. Larry said something self deprecating about his left hand and Milt laughed and said "with a left hand like that, you don't need no bass player!" | 
Bass in Heaven.. "The Judge" 
Not Milt? 
