I began playing the Alto Saxophone at the age of eight in the quiet outskirts of New York City.  In high school, my teacher Chasey Dean exposed to me bebop — its spirit seemed to flow naturally through his fingers — and I realized for the first time how powerful an expression of spirit and intellect music could be.

When I began college, my study of jazz improvisation with NYC trombonist David Gibson
opened up the language of bebop, a sophisticated and challenging musical idiom, while my studies with ethnomusicologist James Kimball seasoned my playing with an awareness of the staggering range of the world’s musics.

Since receiving my BA in Music in 2009, I have studied with Michael Hashim, Bob Reynolds, Stuart Bogie, Ian Hendrickson-Smith, Jason Rigby and Dmitri ‘Zisl’ Slepovich. I am deeply nourished by Brooklyn’s creative energies, which invigorate me to connect intellectually, culturally and spiritually with a host of diverse musicians. Although I’ve maintained a connection with the traditional roles of the saxophone in styles like jazz, R&B and soul music, my playing has also branched out to embrace cumbia, klezmer, new music, hip-hop and electronic experimentation – to name a few. I love to compose and produce music, and – in addition to collaborating with peers in several of these capacities (including Karikatura, Lollise, Dawn Drake and others) – released a debut studio album under my own name in 2021, titled Doomscrolling.

I’ve had opportunities to perform live at some of the greatest venues in the world and to record on studio albums with artists such as Karikatura, King Holiday, Escarioka, Ben Brody’s Ensemble Flow State, Blitz the Ambassador, Afrodisíaco, Delsonido, Great Caesar, Wildcat! Wildcat! and Scythian.

At present, I am collaborating with NYC Afrobeat legend Leon “Kaleta” Ligan-Majek to fuse traditional sounds from his native Benin with jazz fusion and afrobeat. Behind the scenes I am tinkering with electronics and exploring new modes of music production involving electro-acoustic improvisations and procedurally-guided sampling. For several years, as compelled by teaching as I am by learning, I have worked as a woodwind instructor, both on a freelance basis and at the Laconia Music Center. I have also had the honor of working as a Musical Ambassador through the US State Department’s American Music Abroad program, leading workshops and performing didactic concerts for students ranging from beginners to conservatory-bound young adults on songwriting and improvisation.

For me, music is a tool of transcendence, a joyful means of making contact with the infinite. In all of my projects, I am guided by this belief, which anchors my perspective even as it pushes me to explore ever newer and more wondrous horizons.