I’ve been playing the clarinet since 1977 (“since the Carter Administration,” I like to say), but despite lots of playing and success all through high school, I didn’t really take it seriously until college (Rutgers University, in the late 1980s), where I majored in music and discovered jazz. Luckily, there was a significant jazz program there and I got to hear some great students and faculty. In particular, I was able to study for a year with the late, great Ted Dunbar, who basically arranged for me to go to Indiana University to continue studying the music. I also met my friend and mentor Perry Robinson during my college years, and I remain close to him to this day.

At Indiana, of course, I studied with David Baker, but equally important was my time with James Campbell, a Canadian classical clarinet soloist who taught me, at long last, how to really play the instrument.

I moved to New York in the mid-1990s, and after a couple of years of meaningless dayjobs, played full-time for about five years. Amid the dross of wedding bands, club dates and theatrical work were the bright points: I began studying with Mike Longo and performing with his New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble (we play about once a month); formed a great band called Type II with the vibraphonist Nick Mancini (see downloads); and unexpectedly found myself working in synagogues quite often, in both Manhattan and Westchester. I also formed a fine group called The New Reed Quartet with Perry Robinson, Mark Whitecage and Rozanne Levine. Finally, I probably spent more time that I should have playing in a rock band led by Nick Clemons (son of Clarence), but the upside of it was that I got be in a band with drummer Bob Ramos and guitarist Joel Primer, two close friends.

Jazzwise, I have lots of heroes, but no “major cat.” Being a jazz clarinetist necessarily means I have lots and lots of idols on many different instruments, and for many different reasons. They include Lester Young, Pepper Adams, Tony Scott, Perry Robinson, Thelonious Monk, Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Artie Shaw, Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell, to name a few.

Regarding the “Jewish soul music,” I keep telling people I’m not really a Klezmer player, despite what they may hear me playing, because real Klezmorim know the music the way I know jazz. That is, they know the tune types, are much more familiar with the stylistic language and, on a more ethereal level, “breathe” the music; it’s where their heart is. The best I can say about my Klezmer efforts is that I “play at” the music, rather than play it. People who frequent the Shul of New York, where I play with The Shul Band, don’t seem to care one way or the other about that, but *I* know the difference.