Yes, the Lord picked out Louis

Abstract

We knew some people that was good friends of the owners of The Lark on 3rd Street near Vermont in Los Angeles. They wanted to put a dixieland band in there and they particularly wanted me to be the leader. The Lark was a new place as far as music was concerned. It was primarily a top restaurant where they had a big room and a lot of space to put in a bandstand. I never did really want my own band, but these friends talked me into going over to see George Sanders, the owner, and it turns out the price was right, way over scale, which was unusual for Los Angeles. They kept saying it was time for me to get some recognition and they convinced me that I should get a band. Besides, I was getting very unhappy with this Happy Koomer because, in order to work for him, you had to make yourself a B-boy. You heard of B-girls? They was girls that had to mingle with the customers and hustle drinks. Happy literally wanted the musicians to do that, too. Him and I got in a few arguments because I wouldn’t do what he wanted, so I said to myself it would be a good time to quit Teddy and go. This was in 1957.