Music

I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio with the goal of being a full time musician, and studied hard learning to play drums, then attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. I then learned to play keywords and sing, as well as composition and songwriting.

In the 1980s I made a living playing drums and singing in nightclubs around the Boston and New England area. I am currently doing occasional gigs around Los Angeles, and working on writing and recording various original music, which varies in style from jazz-rock fusion instrumental to jazz-pop vocal music.

Influences

My early musical influences included seeing the Beatles live at the age of 7, then jazz-pop groups in the late 60s such as Chicago and Blood Sweat and Tears, then Miles Davis, then the CTI record label with artists like Freddie Hubbard and George Benson.

Then I got pretty heavily into the fusion scene in the mid-70s with groups like Chick Corea and Return to Forever and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. At Berklee I got heavily into the ECM record label with their artists like Gary Burton (who was a Berklee teacher), Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett and Eberhard Weber.

Today I like a wide variety of styles, but particularly lean towards anything with a jazz influence in it, such as pop artists like Sting and Steely Dan.

As a drummer my favorites include current greats Dave Weckl, Steve Gadd, Vinnie Collauta, and Peter Erskine, and some of my past favorites included Billy Cobham, Lenny White, and Bill Bruford. I have had several drum teachers that were excellent, including Bob McKee (in Cleveland) Dennis Carlson (at Berklee) and Gary Chaffee.

Original Music

I am currently recording a CD of 13 original songs, which I will describe as jazz influenced pop music. You can click on the links below to hear some of the songs.

“As One,” featuring Eric Marienthal

“Home Tonight,” featuring Mitch Talevi

“Olympus,” featuring Larry Williams

Influences

Original Music

My Blogs