This is where I started (check out all the pics) in late 1968 while still in High School, The
Lynn Oliver Studios.
I played all the great charts in the Big Band Workshop there which I can now say with great confidence that was my most important training in musicianship.
I won my audition with Horace Silver there and did a demo recording with Abbey Lincoln with Wayne Shorter as arranger and handed me my part. I sat in with Mongo Santamaria there who later hired me briefly and also met and sat in with Sonny Rollins. I even did a Big Band job with Lynn Oliver on Drums at my side. All of this happened while I was still a teenager. Talk about opportunities!
Horace Silver w/ Lynn Oliver;
Paul Chambers;
Richard Davis;
Bob Cranshaw w/Duke Pearson;