I have been playing guitar professionally since I was in High School and teaching nearly as long!
I ‘cut my musical teeth’ playing myriad of styles in variety of venues. As my native area expanded from Florida to New Orleans and beyond, my musical influences began to reflect everything I heard. And, I must say playing drums in the marching and concert bands while in high school ensured a fundamental understanding of both rhythm and time which provided a foundation vital to functioning in a rhythm section.
After a stint as a student in the music department at Pensacola Junior College, annoying the chairman of the music department with “funky” and incongruously syncopated rhythms for 4 part chorals the ‘Good Doctor’ Whitmore implied I needed to find a “NEW” college. He suggested Berklee College of Music; so, off I went, to the frozen environs of Boston and my new alma mater. Literally, just over the river and across the bridge from both Harvard University and MIT is the world famous: Berklee College of Music.
When I had graduated from Berklee, in addition to my Jazz and contemporary music studies, I had composed traditional music pieces including: Symphonic works, Sonatas, Fugues, Motets and compositions in smaller forms. Augment the writing schedule with the daily hours of instrumental practice, ensemble obligations, elective classes, gigs and homework and I had a full musical schedule.
Long rehearsals, personal practice, road gigs and recording sessions, over the years, have all helped to ensure my “continuing” musical education. This experience is what I try to share with each student. Music lessons, of any kind, can be an opportunity to short-cut the arduous process of trial and error while teaching yourself or leapfrog from a current musical plateau.
- Associates of Arts, Pensacola Junior College
- Bachelor of Music, Berklee College of Music
- Featured performer music and jazz festivals
- Musical Director Johnny Thunder and performed with Drifters, Platters, Shirelles, Count Basie
- Performed as both a sideman and group leader in a variety of musical styles with musical national and international touring acts, regional road bands and statewide and local ensembles.
- ASCAP recording Artist
- cited in The Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians – Lewis Porter
- Principal Guitar with Internationally acclaimed Mantovani Orchestra 2012 – 2013 China Tour
- Former Guitarist with the Regional Soul and R&B Band – Groove Therapy
- Guitarsist with Lower Keys Classic Rock Band – Stormfront