I continued studying by myself in the field of jazz with my own technique of improvisation, walking bass lines, rhythms, all kinds of stuff, which I created for myself.

I am a Slavic musician and it is deeply inside of me.

So the whole basis for jazz music is based on the fact that the bass player could not play his instrument.

I basically started playing violin at the age of six. That lasted about three years because my previous teacher died and the second teacher didn't really know how to successfully get me going.

I was pretty much prepared because I was already playing in extremely good ways when I arrived from Europe because I played jazz four or five years before I arrived here.

Miles Davis had me play and he hired me the following week and after that, everything broke wide open.

But I have returned to one hundred percent playing this year. I am fully back to playing full time.