SKF NOTE: My opening question to James Black was, “Early on, was there a person, or something that influenced your decision to play drums instead of another instrument, or something else altogether?” Mr. Black’s answer is part mystery. His main influence, he says, was “an almost midget sized drummer” in New Orleans who “played Dixieland.” Black could not remember that drummer’s name.

Ed Blackwell is cited here too as a James Black influence. As of 1982, the two drummers had only a passing acquaintance with each other. What a duo those two would have been.