one of the thousand

Originally passionate to be a visual artist, at the age of eleven I decided to change my destiny. I was going to join the High School Marching Band. I had never touched a drum before in my life. But I remember very vividly waking up one morning knowing that I was going to be a drummer for the rest of my life. Freshman year began and I made the cut for Top Bass. The second year I made it to the snare line. The third year I made the cut to be the jazz drummer in my High School Band Program. We would go on that year to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.. I was 16. In that same year I would start to compose the cadence and season's show for the entire drum line. My fourth year, I became Center Snare and Drum Captain of my High School's Marching Program. I was also awarded the opportunity to devote the later half of my senior year to what was called an Independent Study. I heavily devoted this time to transcribing mostly the syncopations, solos and grooves of Bill Stewart. This was in the mid-nineties. After High School I was accepted to Berklee College of Music. I entered with 3s. That was about in the middle of the possible scores. Amongst all of the great teachers there, I decided to take lessons from Ian Froman. At that time most drummers dabbled amongst several teachers. I stayed with Ian Froman for the entire duration of my degree. I was and still am a hardcore fan of Elvin Jones and he was the closest thing I could find to that kind of wisdom. I also took several lessons from Bob Gullotti. Seeing him play with the Fringe was all I needed to know. This man had wisdom that I wanted too. It took me an hour riding on my bike to get to his place back then. He now teaches at Berklee. All the while I was teaching drum line camps in the mountains of Virginia and returning back home to help get the local High School drum lines on their feet. After a very brief move to New York, I relocated to Paris, France in 2003. In 2004 I was blessed with a full-time teaching gig in the city of Paris and have been doing that ever since. In 2005 I became head transcriber of all the drum parts in a French magazine called La Batterie Mag. Despite having a waiting list for lessons year in and year out, I'm currently working on furthering my teaching methods. I'm also in the process of writing a serious book about rhythmic theory and ancient drumming. I'm so devoted to my students that I don't find much time for anything else. I have produced however four albums and been on numerous projects and sessions in Paris but nothing that has really broken the ice. Regardless, I can't stop playing. The drum has been with me for almost 30 years. The last 15 of those years have been full-time. I can't imagine life without it, nor without music.