My earliest memories are of musicians rehearsing in our living room on summer nights, with the smell of beer and cigarettes being blown through saxes and trombones. I loved music, especially jazz, and from the start I knew that I wanted to be a musician.

My father played alto sax and had a dance band in our small town in upstate NY. Starting with a hand-me-down clarinet, which he gave me in the 4th grade, I learned to play. By 5th grade I had started my own band and landed my first gig, a 5 piece “jazz combo” that I managed to book in the town's annual Masonic Minstrel Show. On the night of the show I was so nervous, I dropped my clarinet 3 times while waiting to go on. Once on stage, all I could get out of it was a lot of squeaks. Despite this inauspicious beginning, I stuck with music—just not with the clarinet, fortunately.

One night while on a summer vacation on the sea coast south of Boston, my mom sneaked me into a nightclub where I saw a jazz band. The pianist drew my attention like a magnet—it was a Damasus Road experience! From then on, I knew that was what I wanted to do. I went home and immediately started teaching myself the piano. Surprisingly, I could do it. I was so enthused that it never occured to me that I might need any lessons. I just started playing—and watching pianists—after that. I still learn somethng from watching just about any piano player.

Seeing Duke Ellington & his band of great black musicians was another major “aha!” moment for me. I knew this was the real thing. Here were players whose natural, cultural heritage came with a wealth of warmth and soul, unlike the heritage into which I was born—English & Presbyterian! “This” was what I knew I wanted. In the same way that Bill Bradley learned to play basketball through pickup games in the ghetto, I soon began choosing to be the only white musician in many black bands (much to the dismay of some of the musicians who had to endure my growing pains). This OBT (On the Bandstand Training) gave me an incredibly varied musical “education” and a wealth of experiences for which I am forever grateful. It has resulted in me being able to play a wide range of gigs in all kinds of places: from "chittlin' circuit" one-nighters in Georgia and Florida (with a band called The Vibrators!) to concerts in South America and Europe with the Navy Band, to a tour with the Platters, to "chichi", society gigs in New York and Palm Beach.

As hard as it is (even for me!) to believe, I still get just as excited about an upcoming gig as I did back in the "clarinet butter fingers" days. And I'm extremely grateful for all the years I'm been fortunate to be making my living making music.