I'm always asked about my favorite trumpet players. I like 'em all. In junior high school, I was lucky to meet and talk with Clark Terry. A year or two later, I heard Maynard Ferguson and Bill Chase several times live. Listened to Al Hirt at his club in the New Orleans French Quarter in 1976. I heard Richard Williams around 1975. In the summer of 1978, I was in Chicago and heard Roy Eldridge. That was huge! A couple of years later, I sat at the front table at Ronnie Scott's club in London listening to Harry "Sweets" Edison. While I was living in D.C., I heard Freddie Hubbard many, many times. He always came and played for a week at a time at Blues Alley. I used to go everynight. I used to go to the One Step Down and listen and talk to Tom Harrell and Woody Shaw. I was in school with Branford Marsalis at Berklee. He made me go to Lulu Whites' Club to meet and hear his brother Wynton, who had come up from school at Julliard in New York to sit-in with Art Blakey's band. Unfortunetly, he wouldn't even shake my hand when we met..just walked away and left me standin there with my hand extended. Later in the year, heard Randy Brecker in Cambridge. Couple of years later, heard Johnny Coles with the Ray Charles Band. I sat-in with Ted Curson at the Blue Note in New York around 1984. Heard Snooky Young and Conte Condoli bring the house down at the I.A.J.E. in L.A. around '85. Jammed several times with Roy Hargrove in New York at Small's and other places. Heard Wallace Rooney at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Listened to and jammed with Brazilian trumpeter Claudio Roditi. Heard Lester Bowie play some of the most soulful trumpet I've ever heard at the 1991 I.A.J.E. in Washington, D.C. Heard all the new "great" players in New York at Small's, Savoy and the New York I.A.J.E. Listened to Tim Hagens in Boston and New York. Jammed with Sam Noto in Buffalo. Heard Ingrid Jensen in New York. Hung out and had a lesson with Joe Wilder in Atlantic City....Bob McCoy in New York. Spent a great day hangin and eatin with Clark Terry in Witchita, Kansas...just the two of us!

I've been lucky. I've gotten to hear so many of the great players in trumpet history. I like 'em all.

But, a couple of my favorites are "cats" you've probably not heard about. Tomaz Stanko (Poland), Tom Williams (lives in D.C.) and Pete Henderson (Pittsburgh). Pete passed away a couple of years ago. Pete was soooo soulful. I did a bunch of sessions with him. Those Saturday afternoon sessions, hosted by drummer Roger Humphries at the Too Sweet Lounge in the Homewood section of Pittsburgh, were like something out of a jazz history book. I still think Pittsburgh has the hippest "jazz spirit" of any city I've ever been. I won't EVEN try to describe Pete's playing here. All I can say is that he was badddddd! He didn't waste any notes....didn't play a bunch of crap.