My dreams and aspirations were to swim and play sports and become a cameraman. I like to take video. Just shooting action always intrigued me when I was young. With sports, I still swim, and I always love to swim. I only swam one year in high school. I was a sophomore. I won like two-thirds of the races I was in and they were really pushing me because they wanted to train me for the Olympics and then I got into a motorcycle accident — it was very serious — so that was the end of that.

And from that point on that’s when I started listening to music more deeply — shortly after I saw Jimi Hendrix live in Hartford. I didn’t even know who he was. My sister had an extra ticket. It was so mind-blowing. And I didn’t realize my life had changed.

I got into the saxophone because — well, I went to Weaver High School in Hartford and my junior year I decided I wanted to play an instrument so I went to the music teacher and I said I wanted to play in the band and he says, "Have you ever played an instrument before?” I said, “No.” He said, “Well you can’t. Get out.” My senior year, they changed teachers. Mr. Steele from New Orleans. He had a whole room full of instruments. “Take whatever you want. Take it home, play it for a week and come back and we’ll see what we can do.” I took a saxophone. Mr. Steele was the inspiration to many Hartford students.

I think most musicians tell stories, because if you’re an improvisor, you’re telling a story. Everybody’s a story teller. Everybody’s an artist. Because in traditional life, everybody is expected to tell a story. I mean, if you have children, you have to tell stories. This is how it is.

Especially lately I’ve been playing more and more often — for myself. Yeah! I have a band, too, but most of my work always has been solo. I’ve always performed, but my mother always told me that I’m not a musician — I’m an artist. And I understand that.

I’ve always been exposed to traditional indigenous music. My mother’s mother used to sing to us all the time. Well, it’s funny — we live in a patriarchal world, but the fact is, not only do women give us life, women taught me how to sing, women taught me how to drum, so I always try to honor female energy.

When I’m swimming — I swim everywhere: lakes, rivers, the ocean. When the temperature goes above 70, I usually like to immerse myself in some water. It’s more like a baptism, just being immersed in that water — nothing like it.

When I think of my art I think of myself as a wave artist, because everything in the universe is composed of waves: sonic, aquatic, percussive, harmonic. And since everything boils down to a wave, we realize that there are infinite variations on waves but all waves share certain universal qualities. And when you understand that, it’ll help you surf through life, so to speak. Cause I mean, the wave’s constantly around us. I mean, we’re talking in waves. The light is around us all the time. We are a wave — that’s what we are, water.

Press [CMD left arrow - Mac] or [CTRL left arrow - Windows] to return to image