BIO / DISCOGRAPHY

I started playing saxophone professionally at age 14 playing in the back up band for a local Up With People group…a somewhat corny song and dance troop. Then at age 16 I was playing alto in a 16 piece swing band playing every weekend at country clubs and festivals in the Cleveland area.

After graduating high school and moving back to Southern California I entered Saddleback College as an engineering major…all the while attending the college jazz band rehearsals, played in reading bands at other colleges, and playing gigs at night. These gigs were mostly pop club gigs (in 1974) where I learned a lot about playing the exciting music that was happening at that time. By now I had taken up the tenor sax for the pop gigs and eventually it became my main horn for jazz as well.

My second year of college I switched to a jazz music major and began studying with the great Los Angeles jazz saxophonist and session player Gary Foster. Gary was my first real professional jazz sax teacher. Up to this point I was pretty much self taught relying on my inherent talent. Wow did things start to take off as far as my jazz playing.

The next year (1976) I transferred as a junior to the jazz program at Cal State Northridge. I was able to keep Gary as my primary teacher. I still played gigs at night however more of the gigs were now jazz gigs as I became a better jazz player. I graduated after two years at CSUN and became a full time musician in Los Angeles. I still played in reading bands at various colleges as well as rehearsal bands at the union.

Around this time I co-formed my first original band, “Mother Tongue”. I had been diving deep into avant garde music and this band was a result of that interest. The trio was myself on saxes (even Bari), Eric Schultz on guitar, and Alan Cook on drums. All of us shared a love of “out” music. We wrote and played original compositions…as well as playing compositions by great avant garde jazz musicians of the time like Ornette Coleman and the Art Ensemble Of Chicago. We played as many gigs as we could scrape up…not many gigs for that kind of jazz, especially back then. We traveled to the Banff Centre in Canada and took part in the first year of their well recognized summer jazz program run by Dave Holland. It’s focus was on already formed bands playing “freer” jazz. The faculty was Holland, Lee Konitz, Albert Mangelsdorf, John Abercrombie, Kenny Wheeler, Don Thompson. After spending 3 weeks with these giants we came back to L.A. inspired to play our music original.

By 1980 I was married with an infant child…still playing pop, jazz, and “free” gigs. I had decided to get a part time day gig so I could focus on playing jazz…the pop gigs were getting to be a drag (it was the ‘80’s!!). I cleaned pools three mornings a week which was perfect for leaving afternoons and evenings free for rehearsals and gigs. This worked out great for the next 6 years until my marriage broke up. I was also burned out cleaning pools.

So I set up joint custody of my son, sold my pool route, used that money to buy 8 track recording studio gear, and declared myself a full time musician again. I had always been interested in recording technology now I built my first studio (1/2” 8 track). I still maintain a studio to this day.