i was born in mobile alabama in 1975. son of a preacha man. we were in church sangin the holy ghost down since i can remember. i learned to harmonize from my mother who sang alto. my father would preach until he was covered in sweat & red w/ passion. i started playin piano wen i was 6, pickin out amazing grace. wen my mom heard me she put me in piano lessons. hated it. wen i was 10 i started playin baritone & after 1 year of luggin that thing around i switch to trumpet as it was much easier to carry. we moved to peoria il & i met someone who changed my life. mary sherwood. she would bang on the piano like nuthin i ever saw b4, on sunday afternoons, have 30 people over to her humble home, cook for everybody(& i mean cook) & then host a big sangin/jam afterwards. her son played trombone & she insisted i bring my horn & made me play at church w/ no written charts. this is how i started playin music. years later i went to southeastern college in lakeland fl. i then met a man who wud again change my life forever, paul butcher. he was my trumpet teacher but became much more as i began to learn the art of improvisation & started learning jazz piano. b4 him i hadnt learn to appreciate cats like miles davis, freddie hubbard, clifford, chet baker, & so many more great jazz players & composers. i owe much of who i am 2day to him & i believe God put him in my life for a divine purpose. i also met a group of puerto rican/dominicans & started travelling w/ them playin salsa, merengue etc. (where's 1?) i also helped produce & arrange my 1st cd w/ a student led choir & band as well as worked at disney playin in a brass band w/ sum top brass players in the state. good times. i then started travelling w/ truth playin trumpet, a pop singin group who travelled playin church's across north america. after this experience i went to the university of central ok to earn a masters degree in jazz trumpet performance. there i studied w/ an amazing jazz trumpet player(full blooded cherokee indian) lee rucker. he sounded like freddie & chet's love child. THEN IT ALL CAME 2GETHER wen i moved to DALLAS tx. i spent 8 years there & met sum of the most influential & talented cats on the planet who messed me uphere goes: Keith Anderson, Bobby Sparks, Bernard Wright, JT, Skeet, Todd Parsnow, Sput, God's Property, John Caruth, Jamil Byrom, Wes Stephenson, Mark Lettieri, Rodney Englebosh & many, many others. thru my connection w/ bobby sparks i linked up & worked as an arranger w/ multi-platinum artists such as
Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, Anthony Hamilton, Ledisi, Regina Belle, Timbaland & many others. i also worked in a studio that bobby owned & with his help made this album "the Dallas Allstars". blessed w/ performances from fred hammond, myron butler, marcus cole, daniel johnson, candy west & martha munizzi. after making this record i then linked up w/ BERNARD WRIGHT & spent my last year & a half kickin it w/, driving around, playin w/ & studying w/ him. this experience was the most revolutionary experience of my musical career thus far. i believe him to be the strongest voice in MUSIC. i said itNOWas of feb 2008, i live in nashville tn, writing, producing, arranging & listening to music. i believe i was put on this planet to help awaken people thru this amazing expression of humanity & life we call MUSIC.
Discography
