I learned jazz violin at the corner of a piano in Charlotte, N.C., where my father, C.A. McKnight, would play jazz and swing piano songs from the '30s and '40s to unwind from his daily duties as a newspaper editor.

This tune was first sketched out on guitar in the French Quarter of New Orleans in 1981 and then on piano in Germany in 1982 during reflections of the journey of music from the Carolinas and the Crescent City to Europe and back. However, it was not until the spring of '05 that the "bookend" piano chords at the beginning and end of "Last Call" were added as a tip-of-the-hat tribute to the enduring influences of classical piano music from such masters as Chopin and Debussy.

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