His first professional work was with Kansas City musicians Nathan Davis, Cleanhead Vinson and Frank Smith.

He moved to California in 1961,[1] and worked as a studio musician for several years, including in the orchestras for two movie soundtracks, Seven Days In May and The Manchurian Candidate, the latter starring Frank Sinatra.

[3] He released two albums as a leader for Pacific Jazz at this time while recording as a sideman with Bud Shank, Onzy Matthews, Curtis Amy, Harold Land, and Gerald Wilson.

In 1965, he moved to Germany where he lived for 15 years,[1] working with Paul Kuhn and the SFB Big Band (Sender Freies Berlin) from 1968 to 1980.

There he worked with musicians such as Milo Pavlovic, Herb Geller, Leo Wright, Rudi Wilfer and Eugen Cicero.