As I got older, I started listening to more rock and progressive music. This coincided with me playing in Jazz band in high school. I enjoyed jazz band, but it wasn’t until hearing the Count Basie band at the Reno Jazz festival that I really got excited about it. Shortly thereafter the drummer for Journey, Steve Smith, released a jazz/fusion record as a side project called Vital Information which opened up the world of improvisational music to me. I also heard the band Tower of Power for the first time at the San Joaquin county fair.
        I had kind of an ADD approach with music with all these different styles influencing my playing. I believe it has served me well in preparing me to play in a variety of settings. I don’t feel that I excel in any particular area of music, but this “inch deep mile wide” approach to learning music has made it easier to take on a wider variety of gigs.
         After high school, I attended Cal State Stanislaus. I wasn’t a music major, but I performed in the jazz ensemble and the orchestra. I was in a band (“The Gents”) that had a fair amount of success in the area, and even put out a record. After graduating CSUS I knew I wanted to pursue music, but I wasn’t sure how. Many musicians that I respect attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, so I went to Berklee for a year. There was so much happening musically at Berklee and in the city of Boston that it was a great learning experience for me. One of the things I learned at Berklee was that I was definitely