I never really participated in our school band programs much, so I guess my first musical experiences were in rock bands. I developed some basic skills on guitar and keyboards and got together with some of the kids in the neighborhood playing the hits of the day. We were at a party once which had a band and were asked to get up and play, which we did, and everybody loved it. I thought at the time this is it, this is what I really want to do, so we kept at it, playing at school functions and whatnot. Throughout high school, I was always in a band.

Early experiences with jazz
We got into blues in our bands, mostly rock oriented stuff - John Mayall, Paul Butterfield - but also B.B. King, the real thing, and we got into horn bands - Blood, Sweat, and Tears; Chicago; etc. I was having trouble dealing with chords on the keyboards, all those changes, so I figured I'd take up sax because you only had to think of one note at a time, not really knowing I'd have to deal with the chords there eventually too. Earl Stuart at Pied Piper Music on the east side gave me my first sax lessons. This band I was playing in got a gig at Alvin's Deli on the Wayne campus, I was playing both sax and keys, and this guy was there one night and asked to play. He was spectacular, playing more music than I could even imagine. It was Billy McCoy, who has since gone on to play with John McLaughlin and Jean Luc Ponty among others, and he was generous enough to lend me some albums and try to give me an introduction to jazz theory.

Early influences
At first I dug fusion and avant-garde, this was the late sixties - Trane, Wayne Shorter in the Miles band, Ornette. But pretty quickly I worked my way back to hop. The first guy I tried to copy extensively was Dexter, he seemed pretty straightforward to me, and I was able to cop some of his solos. Eventually I worked on copying everybody, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt, Jimmy Heath, Hank Mobley, Bird, Trane, Wayne, Joe Henderson, so I guess those were my first influences, those records.

By this point I was also studying out in the community, both at Oakland University with Doc Holliday, and at Marcus Belgrave's Jazz Development Workshop. I learned about reading music in a sax section, and came into contact with some great jazz musicians, including Doc, Marcus, and Lament Hamilton who was always very generous with his time and knowledge. I also got a chance to work my first real jazz gig with a real jazz musician - the great Frank Isola of the Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, and Mose Allison bands.

Time off
Unable to make a living in music, I went to work in the auto business, and wound up moving to Pittsburgh where I did have a chance to work with a fine band run by John Wilson who heads up the jazz studies department at Duquesne University. I was transferred back to Detroit by my employer in 1983, and decided to make another go of music in 1988 and left the auto business and went into music full time.

Recent history
Since then I've been fortunate to make a good living in music, playing commercial gigs, teaching, and more and more lately, playing jazz clubs and festivals with my group and as a sideman. The most important musical experience I've had in that time has been my study with George Coleman, which was facilitated by a National Endowment grant in 1991. My lessons with him have given me a lifetime of material to work on, and I look forward to continued development as I practice and continue to absorb this material.