My earliest influence in music probably came when I was a baby. No matter what she was doing, my mother always had music playing at home (usually classical). I no doubt heard, and was affected by this music. My Dad remembers me always sitting directly in front of the stereo speakers beating rhythms on the ground or whatever I could find to hit. He says I was amazingly ‘in time’ with the music, even as a toddler. Perhaps this helps explain my developed sense of rhythm, phrasing and my desire to be a drummer. The beat is what first appealed to me in music. As a youngster I would spread my various schoolbooks out, the thickest one in the center as bass drum, the next thickest on the right as floor tom, and the thinnest on the left as a snare, with loose change scattered about on the far left of the book to create the hi-hat sound. Then with two pencils as drumsticks, I was ready to jam along with records. This replaced homework for me, until my Mom would come down to check on me, at which time I would cover the change and pretend to be studying!

Rock music was the first music I bought records of. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Rolling Stones, Beatles, etc... At that time, I lived in a ‘white, upper-middle class’ neighborhood, and they didn’t sing the blues in my church. But I did hear Hendrix, Cream, Johnny Winter, and Alvin Lee. I played in a ‘garage band’(called that because that’s about the only place we ever played) named ‘Red Cooper’, because the singer had red hair and sounded like the famous rock singer, Alice Cooper. When Alice Cooper played in Cincinnati, we all went to see the show and were very impressed. Later, when an older bass-playing friend encouraged me to broaden my perspective, I progressed to the more sophisticated, classical rock of Yes, King Crimson, & Genesis. The guitar players from those groups, Robert Fripp and Steve Howe, really intrigued me. During one summer vacation from high school, I visited and lived with my father in New York, and enrolled in the Guitar Workshop which was within walking distance of his apartment. I studied music and classical guitar, but my biggest discovery was the so-called jazz-fusion music. While visiting a New York City record shop, I bought two records by Chick Corea and John McLaughlin. They really knocked me out! I liked Chick’s guitar player, Bill Connors, because he bent notes and screamed like a rocker, but the harmonies were new to my ears. But McLaughlin’s ‘Birds of Fire’ is still my all time favorite in this idiom, with terrific writing & great energetic playing.

But mainstream jazz was still largely unknown to me. My stepfather had one Oscar Peterson record with no names on it except Oscar's. I now know it was his trio with Herb Ellis and Ray Brown. I didn't know what the music was called and I had no idea where to buy records like that, though I loved the sound immediately . I thought maybe this was some kind of "underground" music! After I discovered jazz-fusion it wasn't long before I discovered and fell in love with mainstream jazz. Generally speaking, the older I became the further I went back to discover the music. For example, first I heard Hendrix, then McLaughlin, then Wes, then Charlie Christian. First Coltrane, then Parker, then Lester Young, then Hawk, etc... like that.

There was a significant period when I listened an awful lot to avant garde and free improvisation. While I was at Berklee College of Music, I heard groups like the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sam Rivers and Dave Holland, and others. I was also introduced to the so-called ECM musicians like Ralph Towner, Terje Rypdol, Gary Burton, DeJonette, etc... While at Berklee I used to ‘jam’ in the practice rooms with the lights completely out, and we would improvise freely. I had private lessons with guitarist, John Damion, and his influence was towards the esoteric. Pat Metheny had just released ‘Bright Size Life’ with Jaco Pastorius, which caused quite a stir, but John Abercrombie was probably my favorite guitarist during my Berklee years.

After I left Berklee, I began private studies with Dave Frank, a Lennie Tristano clone in New York, and that’s what influenced me to listen to more traditional beboppers. In fact, my teacher gave me a list and instructed me not to ever listen to anyone who wasn’t on the list! The people I could listen to, and who’s solo’s I was to sing along with, included Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, Bud Powell, Tristano (of course), Lester Young, Wes Montgomery, and very few others. Singing along with Montgomery’s solo’s helped make him my all time biggest influence as far as guitar style is concerned. Studying with Dave was very influential. I really began working on improvising lines, and alot on my ‘swing’ feel when playing the lines. Dave used to tell me what Lennie told him, screaming and banging his fist into the wall, ‘...put it right the fuck in there!!!...’ Dave was a pianist and I played guitar, but he would listen to me play my lessons and tell me, in no uncertain terms, when I was swinging and when I wasn’t. The swing feel of the eighth notes was most important. I must admit, as much as I learned to love Prez, Bird, and Christian while studying with Dave, I never did strictly follow his 'opinionated list’, and used to listen to lots of the John Coltrane Quartet, including the ‘freer’ things.