From his parents, who loved music, he was exposed to albums by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, and Jimi Hendrix.

When he was nineteen, he moved to New York City and studied with saxophonists George Coleman, Dave Liebman, and Phil Woods.

A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts helped him record his first album, Point Game.

He has also worked with Adam Rogers, Alex Sipiagin, Ben Monder, Ben Perowsky, Bill Frisell, Bobby Previte, Brian Blade, Cecil McBee, Craig Taborn, David Gilmore, Donny McCaslin, Edward Simon, Eivind Opsvik, Genevieve Artadi, Jacob Sacks, James Genus, Jim Black, Jim Hall, Kenny Wollesen, Knower, Leni Stern, Lonnie Plaxico, Mark Turner, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Nate Wood, Scott Colley, Steven Bernstein, Thomas Morgan, Tim Lefebvre, Wayne Krantz, and Louis Cole.

[3] With Lan Xang With Lost Tribe With Uri Caine With Scott Colley With John Escreet With Joel Harrison With Donny McCaslin With Miles Okazaki With Samo Salamon With Edward Simon With Alex Sipiagin With others