It's a complicated story [hoe I got into music ]. I actually wrote a book about it, titled For Sue.

[Manhattan School Of Music] didn't' have a jazz undergraduate program at the time so I played a semester in the big band. There was a graduate program. But I wasn't really that involved in jazz yet.

Bob [Gordon] died young tragically.

I have to say, music was always my self preservation survival technique. This sort of sacred space in my life and in my mind.

My life is a gift not an obligation and I Get To make the most of it.

I feel very similarly. I didn't have necessarily the same exact kind of dynamic, but that means a lot when people are like that with you. Especially people like that. And I think [Phil Wood] felt a certain responsibility .

Earlier that year [1996], Ronnie Scott came to Visiones when I was playing with Maria and he hired me to come and play in his club in London, which I was gratified by. That allowed me to make some more connections.