The company is suffering from a combination of industry issues of weaker volume and high levels of bad debt, aggravated by weak cash flow.

They're at a point where they have to find the (capital spending) dollars to remain competitive.

Art and I played more when we were in San Quentin together than when we were on the outside. We had a great band there with Frank Butler, Dupree Bolton, Nathaniel Meeks and some guys who learned how to play while they were in prison.

Sometimes insiders get it right, and sometimes they don't,

The good news is that with this they've cleared the plate of most of their legal issues and can now focus on operations.

While in prison, we had an excellent pianist named Jimmy Bunn, who also recorded with Bird. Jimmy would play a small accordion, and he, Art and I would play all day, nothing but ballads.

That would be the easy conclusion to draw, but I don't know that's the fact.

I was an admirer of Art Pepper even before I went to California, when he was still in Kenton's band. His playing is joyous, great.

Certainly, as expected, there were no real surprises here.

Some analysts seemed to think the company would have an upside surprise, ... But they reported right in line with what the consensus was.