[turnipmonster]

cool thread. I started playing guitar in junior high, got into playing jazz late in high school via a very cool guitar teacher, started playing jazz gigs in college and haven't really stopped since. after a few semesters of college I quit to play in a touring band, then got sick of that and went back to studying jazz with a great piano player and gigging around town. after college I moved to nyc to try and play with the best people, and went to the new school for jazz performance and started playing gigs around town. I've toured europe several times, once with a very popular swing band and a couple of times just playing gigs here and there with a trio.

I always wrote jazz tunes but started taking composing more seriously in school and have written a lot of original music, arranged for small group, septet as well as big band. in the past few years I've gotten into string writing and wrote several string quartets. I also studied classical for 2.5 years not too long ago, but eventually decided it wasn't for me.

I play with several groups now and have a regular tuesday trio gig which is fun. there have been rare occasions when I haven't gigged regularly over the past 12 years, and I always feel really weird about it. I really need to play with other people regularly. I feel lucky to have been able to play gigs all these years, and hope to continue until the bitter end.

whew, that was long. sorry for the emo bio.