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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  • What is one message you would give to your fans?
    Thank you for liking the music and being a fan.
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  • Which artists have influenced you the most?
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  • How do you handle mistakes during a performance?
    One of the great skills to learn is if something doesn’t go as planned, which is what we call a mistake, to know how to deal with that and make it apart of the performance and make it so it doesn’t detract from the performance. We’re all human and we all make mistakes but you can make a mistake where you do something musically so that it doesn’t detract from what’s going on.
  • What advice would you give a youngster who is interested in playing the trumpet?
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  • What advice would you give to beginners who are nervous?
    Focus on why you play music. The joy and the passion you have for it rather than what if. That’s what makes you nervous, saying ‘What if’
  • Do you still have ambitions? Are there challenges, or things you'd like to master?"
    I wouldn’t call them ambitions, I’m not sure I ever had ambitions in the true sense of the word. I was always about now, what I could do now, and I had things I always would have loved to do but I never made an ambition. They were things I just thought would naturally follow.
  • What has been your biggest regret?
    I don't believe in regrets, in expending energy saying 'I wish I hadn't done it'. I've even written a song called No Regret.
  • How often and for how long do you practice?
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  • Why are you so involved in education?
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  • On the other end of the spectrum, is there anybody that you wished that you would work with or any projects that you’ve wanted to do?"
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  • Who gave you your first trumpet?
    Yes! To add a picture follow these simple steps: Enter App Settings Click the "Manage Questions" button Click on the question you would like to attach a picture to When editing your answer, click on the picture icon and then add an image from your library
  • What has been your best investment?
    The years spent skipping school while I learned my craft.
  • What is the best advice another musician has ever given you?
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  • What is your favourite song to perform?
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  • What has been your biggest break?
    Don Burrows asked me to join his quintet when I was 16. I ran late into [music] class, tripped and fell, there were instruments everywhere, then my teacher introduced me to Don Burrows. For the next six years I was a regular member of his quintet.
  • Who was your first teacher?
    If you mean music teacher, yes, Neil Goff, he was also a minister at our local church and played trombone.
  • What is the best advice you’ve been given?
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  • Personal philosophy
    It's all OK. No matter what happens, it's all for the good.
  • What has been your worst investment?
    The 130 cars I've owned. If you want to lose money, buy a car and just wait a bit - actually you don't even need to wait a bit. I usually own about half a dozen cars although I'm down to three at the moment [a BMW 750, a Lexus and a BMW Z4].
  • When and why did you start playing?
    I started playing when I was 6 on piano, 7 on the brass, and I started because I loved the feeling that music gave me and I wanted to be able to make that feeling.
  • What influence did your father/mother have on your desire to become a musician?
    Very little, they were wonderful facilitators and supported me enormously but that’s after I expressed the desire to do it. They didn’t influence me to have that desire at all.
  • You’ve worked with a wide range of legendary players over your career. Can you mark some personal musical highlights from the past?
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  • Did you always want to be a jazz musician or did you try other genres first?
    As a musician I always wanted to be a jazz musician, and I have not only tried but do play many other genres. I have performed with symphony orchestras, played on rock and pop albums, but always wanted to be a jazz musician.
  • How many instruments can you play?
    I don’t know, lots and that’s because there’s always one I’ll forget. All the brass (13), all the saxophones (6), piano, double bass, guitar.
  • What would you be doing right now, if it wasn’t for your music career?"
    I don’t know because I have a very long list of things I would be if I wasn’t a musician. I’d be a professional pilot, I already am, a professional sailor, I’d run some sort of agency in the entertainment industry.
  • What’s next for you?
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  • Do you sing in the shower? What songs?
    No I don’t sing in the shower but I think. I think a lot.
  • What was the first tune(s) you learned?
    The very first tune I learnt was Merrily We Roll Along, but the first jazz piece I learnt was Basin Street Blues.
  • What qualities do you look for in a band member?
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  • Do you get nervous before a performance or a competition?
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  • What is the most useless talent you have?
    To be able to eat a 1 kg burrito in under 2 minutes. It’s useless because I’m not allowed, my wife said I’m not doing that. So I’ve got this talent I can’t use.
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