Daniel Rosenboom, Wadada Leo Smith, Edward Carroll, Kris Tiner at CalArts, 5/6/2014

Spent the day yesterday at my alma mater California Institute of the Arts, presenting my music (along with friend and colleague Daniel Rosenboom) in Wadada Leo Smith‘s class. Dan and I both studied with Wadada from very early on. I first connected with him as an undergrad, and was in his MFA program at CalArts from 2001-2003. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of his teaching on all the work I’ve done since. Quite an honor for both of us to be invited to share our recent work on his final visiting artist program — Leo is retiring from teaching this year after 20 years at CalArts.

Also present was CalArts trumpet prof Edward Carroll, another teacher that Dan and I share. What a fantastic, sweet time reconnecting with Leo and Ed, both of them heroes for us and a whole generation of trumpet players and creative musicians.