Q: What do you hope to accomplish as an artist?
A: I'd like to continue improving my playing and writing in general of course, but I'm especially interested in flamenco and flamenco-jazz fusion. I aspire to build more musical contacts in these musical areas, create more bands focused on flamenco-jazz, and get deeper into the rhythms of flamenco. This is my musical direction moving forward currently.
Q: What music were you raised on?
A: I listened to plenty of classical music, as well as folk music of various kinds, oldies ('50s/'60s pop) and classic rock. I really didn't start listening to jazz until high school.
Q: What artists inspired you the most?
A: My biggest influence as a trumpet player is Clifford Brown, but I also draw a lot of inspiration from Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, and Woody Shaw. As far as composing, I am quite influenced by the writing of these trumpeters, but also by more modern composers like Dave Holland and Chris Potter.
Q: What made you decide to become a musician?
A: Music has always been the art form which had the most powerful effect on me emotionally. So music has always spoken to me on the deepest level, moved me beyond words, and inspired me more than anything else could. Also, having excellent music teachers throughout my school career had a major effect on my early growth as a musician, which made becoming a musician something that was realistic, something I felt was within my reach.
Q: How do you feel you have evolved as an artist?
A: In a general sense, I have gone from being influenced much more by traditional and older straight-ahead jazz to being influenced more by contemporary players and composers. Having experiences of all kinds always comes into play when creating, so of course my life experiences have had some effect on my artistic evolution. For example, I lived in Shanghai for eight years, playing jazz and having all kinds of adventures as an expatriate American in China. This formed the thematic inspiration for my debut album Airports. Then, I decided to move back to the town of my birth, Santa Fe, New Mexico, four years ago and started to write music inspired by the breathtaking landscapes here, which is the general theme of the music on this new album Tales of Enchantment. Now, I'm feeling a need for a change of creative landscape and thus am planning to move in the next year.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: I intend to move to New York City in 2015 to find better musicians to work with, a more competitive and expansive jazz scene to inspire my own creative and technical development, and new challenges and adventures.
A: I'd like to continue improving my playing and writing in general of course, but I'm especially interested in flamenco and flamenco-jazz fusion. I aspire to build more musical contacts in these musical areas, create more bands focused on flamenco-jazz, and get deeper into the rhythms of flamenco. This is my musical direction moving forward currently.
Q: What music were you raised on?
A: I listened to plenty of classical music, as well as folk music of various kinds, oldies ('50s/'60s pop) and classic rock. I really didn't start listening to jazz until high school.
Q: What artists inspired you the most?
A: My biggest influence as a trumpet player is Clifford Brown, but I also draw a lot of inspiration from Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, and Woody Shaw. As far as composing, I am quite influenced by the writing of these trumpeters, but also by more modern composers like Dave Holland and Chris Potter.
Q: What made you decide to become a musician?
A: Music has always been the art form which had the most powerful effect on me emotionally. So music has always spoken to me on the deepest level, moved me beyond words, and inspired me more than anything else could. Also, having excellent music teachers throughout my school career had a major effect on my early growth as a musician, which made becoming a musician something that was realistic, something I felt was within my reach.
Q: How do you feel you have evolved as an artist?
A: In a general sense, I have gone from being influenced much more by traditional and older straight-ahead jazz to being influenced more by contemporary players and composers. Having experiences of all kinds always comes into play when creating, so of course my life experiences have had some effect on my artistic evolution. For example, I lived in Shanghai for eight years, playing jazz and having all kinds of adventures as an expatriate American in China. This formed the thematic inspiration for my debut album Airports. Then, I decided to move back to the town of my birth, Santa Fe, New Mexico, four years ago and started to write music inspired by the breathtaking landscapes here, which is the general theme of the music on this new album Tales of Enchantment. Now, I'm feeling a need for a change of creative landscape and thus am planning to move in the next year.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: I intend to move to New York City in 2015 to find better musicians to work with, a more competitive and expansive jazz scene to inspire my own creative and technical development, and new challenges and adventures.
