How did you come to play the trumpet?

[helplessconstable]

When I was in junior high, I was playing with a bunch of cats in high school who were doing the garage band stuff playing Motown and songs like “I wish you were rain,” “Cold Sweat,” and “Knock on wood.” Those were my first paying and non-paying gigs because a lot of times we’d go to get paid and didn’t get paid. I guess my first real professional gig was when I graduated from high school and I joined Lionel Hampton’s band, and that got me to New York. I’m from Oakland, California.