After many years as a professional musician and teacher, I began repairing saxophones. My initial interest was sparked by the necessity of doing small repairs on the gig or in the woodshed, but it was only after thirty five years of playing saxophone that I committed myself to saxophone repair full-time.
I played my first paid gigs in high school (1967-68) and began working full-time after graduation, right up until the day my my draft notice arrived. In October 1968, I dodged the draft by joining the Army. Clever, huh?
I attended the Armed Forces School of Music at Little Creek, Virginia, and was subsequently assigned to the 50th Army Band at Fort Monroe, Virginia. Several years after my discharge, I moved to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music.
At Berklee, I studied with dozens of great teachers such as Joe Viola, Herb Pomeroy, John LaPorta, Andy Mcghee, Bob Hores, Charlie Mariano, and Hal Grossman. After graduation, I toured with the rock musical, Grease, then returned to Berklee as an instructor in 1978. In 1987 I moved to Southern California. I returned to Boston in 1990 to pursue a Master's Degree in Performance at New England Conservatory. It was about this time that I began to give serious consideration to the repair business.
I've been fortunate to work with a lot of great musicians and entertainers, some famous, some not so famous. A few of the names you might recognize are Kenny Barron, Mike Stern, Herb Pomeroy, Lou Rawls, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, The Artie Shaw Orchestra, Rita Moreno, Cecil McBee, Victor Lewis, The San Diego Summer pops Orchestra, The Delfonics, The Coasters, The Four Tops, and Temptations and more weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, strip clubs and Latin bands than I can recall. My two recordings for the AuioQuest label are available online, at Amazon. I have also recorded with trumpeter Tony D'aveni, drummer Matt Gordy, and guitarist Dan Weiner.
When I finally made the decision to give repair a try (1995), I discovered I liked it more than teaching, so I began to cut my teaching schedule back. Business grew rapidly and after a few years I stopped teaching altogether.
For most of my sax life, I was the guy on the other side of the counter, dealing with the frustrations of trying to get his horn fixed. As a result of those experiences, I always try to do my work with the player's perspective foremost in my mind. It won't make me rich, but if I wanted to get rich, I never would have picked up a saxophone.
