A little something about me

Well if you really want to hear (read?) it, here goes. I'm from Jefferson Township New Jersey and attended Jefferson Township High School. If you know me, you've probably heard me talking about this town. "Nowheresville", "the woods" and "middle of nowhere" are probably my favorite recent derogatives. Anyway, I lived there until i was about 18 and I survived. I tolerated it until I got away from it and went to Montclair State University. I graduated Montclair as a percussion major in the music department and I have a degree in music education.
It only took one semester at Montclair and then I had to pledge the music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. I had the best and worst times in college with this organization. I was the president of the Lambda Mu chapter.
I'm a teacher now in Oakland, NJ. I have a page on that site somewhere, but i don't know the exact address. I'm responsible for all the instrumental students (band and strings) in 5th grade as well as some of the middle schoolers...in 4 schools! It's a real big job, but I think I'm doing fine so far.
What are my real aspirations? Well most of my drumming inspiration comes from soul music like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and James Brown. I sometimes play in an R&B and soul group called Groove Factor 5 and we made a CD. I'm really happy with my playing on it actually. I also have done some work in the percussion group vein that was heavily influenced by West African music. That group was called Teonanacatl originally, changed its name to Suva, then split up. We just recorded a CD though and it will be out in the next couple of months. My unofficial page with some sound samples is here. I'm doing some work witha blues band too called No Chaser. The sound samples on that page are recorded live at a rehearsal, but we have done a multitrack that i have to get around to uploading! I'm also playing with a great guitarist called Paul Gargiulo. I think we've hit it off pretty well. He's a great musician and a great guy. We recorded a CD at my studio and it will be also be out real soon. But check out my performing resume page to see what I'm currently up and what I've been up to. I am really into groove-oriented music (but you can read about that on my music page) like Charlie Hunter or Medeski, Martin and Wood.
There are days when I really love teaching and there are others that i think that i want to be a working musician instead. I know what you're thinking..."That's what all you musicians say." Well then that just might make it true. Right now though I think I have a pretty good balance going on.
Main Page
My Performance Resume
My Real Life Resume

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page