In 1978-79 Jean Duverdier and I were students at Paris' Superior School of Fine Arts. Born and raised in the heart of the Basque Country, Jean was the nephew of Dominique Burucoa, a jazz trumpetist and the president of the Hot Club de la Cote Basque, the South West's chapter of that historical French society dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Jazz music. Throughout his childhood, Jean had the rare privilege of rubbing shoulders with visiting American Jazz and Blues artists such as Panama Francis, Milt Buckner, Jo Jones, Pinetop Perkins and Fred Below, learning the rudiments of blues drums and piano while still in knee-pants! By the late seventies, Jean had become one Europe's ...