In college I had the privilege of studying with some real jazz giants: Bobby Bradford, one of Ornette's trumpet players; John Carter, THE avant garde clarinetist of all time and Charlie Shoemake, a virtuoso bebop vibes player. These three influences combined to make me the musician I am today; one that's rooted in the bop tradition but fighting like an animal to find new musical ground to stand on.
I went on to do a National Endowment Grant which brought me to New York to study with David Murray. I think David himself would admit that he isn't the most gifted teacher, however he was working with his octet and big band at the time and thanks to John Purcell's reluctance to attend rehearsals, I got to play the alto chair in rehearsals a lot. I ended up having a nine year freelance career in NYC, played with guys like Dave Douglas, Jack McDuff, big bands, doing my own thing etc. I made an album with Bobby Bradford, Andrew Cyrille and Reggie Workman called "Lost Bohemia" which I'm very proud of. I went over to Europe in 1990 and taught jazz saxophone at Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam for a year. That was really cool because Europeans are really focused on art AND having a good time so there would always be big audiences when I played in the clubs.
Finally I ended up here in Seattle. I released another (esentially post-bop) album called "Signs of Life" which features some of the plethora of New York dropouts that now live in Seattle. I continue to tour and play with the Northwest Musicians including Brian Nova who got me some gigs with rock legend Steve Miller who still sings and plays his ass off. Much of my time is devoted to playing with the band Big Neighborhood (http://www.myspace.com/bigneighborhoodjazz) which is a tremendously inventive group of great players and writers. We are creating a lot of new music with that group including two recent recordings which you can check out by hitting the Big Neighborhood link below.
Thanks for dropping in.
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