The Monk competition did open some doors. And I was thankful for that.

Every morning you have a choice. Are you going to be a positive thinker or a negative thinker? Positive thinking will energize you.

When you fuel up with purpose you find the excitement in the mundane, the passion in the everyday, the extraordinary in the ordinary.

So often the difference between success and failure is belief. Belief leads to action and execution.

[Winning the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition]definitely opened some doors.

I left school December of 1988. I was 21 at the time. And I hadn't quite finished my degree because I had done eight semesters, not understanding that I was going to have to finish the degree without the TAPP and Pell grant money that I had been using towards paying for much of my college tuition. And I didn't have any money. So I said, "Alright." And circumstances there were such that I thought it was maybe time to move on anyway.

Aesthetically, I love the whole history of the music.