Much of my high school years were spent in Africa and I listened a lot to the BBC and my favorites were Cream, Hendrix, Traffic and Free. And a Peace Corps volunteer my father directed gave me three jazz LPs that Atlantic Records had included in "care packages" to the volunteers and I listened to those over and over.

My final year and a half of high school was spent in rural NE Ohio and I was the most unhappy kid you would know, I didn't want to return to America really, and I didn't want to be the kid who was the son of the preacher of the church on the town square necessarily. I didn't relate to a lot that was on the radio except perhaps Santana and Chicago. . . and I found "In A Silent Way" and "Filles De Kilimanjaro" LPs by Miles Davis at the library and those just floored me, and led me away from rock and the radio and into collecting jazz LPs and then cds. . . even though I later started playing drums in blues-rock and alternative-folk-rock bands. . . it's been jazz where my heart has been ever since.