I began with the clarinet at nine years old; when I was 18, I heard Ben Webster at my first jazz concert (1964)
What was the first concert you ever went to?
1964; SUNY @ Stony Brook NY; my freshman class; Ben Webster was totally inspiring !
What gear do you use?
Selmer saxophones : soprano, tenor, baritone: Mark VI; alto Mark VII;
What day of the week ?
Who was your biggest musical influence growing up?
Stan Getz's bossa nova period; played on the radio.
Are you in a band? Have you been in bands?
Show bands in the now defunct Catskill resort hotels: every kind of music,
Now I co-lead "The Kansas City Sound"
If you could jam with anyone, who would it be?
Count Basie in the late 1930's; Duke Ellington in the 1940's; Thelonious Monk in the 1950's Charles Mingus in the 1960's: the reasons are obvious to anyone who respects jazz.
What's the biggest audience you ever performed to? What's the smallest?
With 'The Temptations & The Four Tops at The Belayre Music Festival:2004 (?);
Smallest: 8 people @ Jazz Brunch @ The Falcon , September 11, 2011.
Most memorable: With Roswell Rudd: Broadstrokes Orchestra @ Banilieu Blue, Paris March, 2001
You're stuck on a desert island and only get to bring one album with you. What do you pick?
Pandit Pran Nath; Evening Ragas : 1972
He taught me to sing well in 1971-73.
"Where our mountains end is where ( his ) begins !"