The 2010 Jazz Fest is legendary by now, because you filled in for Aretha Franklin. How much notice did you get?

We got the call around 6 p.m., saying she’d cancelled and asking us to fill in. Next thing you knew, we were making phone calls, arranging to fly people in from all over the country, because the band was on break. We got everybody there by nine the next morning, but we had to be really careful about doing the sound check;...