Upon graduation he entered the U.S. Navy and studied under Kenneth J. Abendschein, touring the world and playing with many jazz figures of 1950s.
[1] After discharge from the service, he worked as a session drummer in New York for Wes Montgomery, John Coltrane, Les McCann, Kai Winding, Jimmy Smith, Charles Mingus, Joe Williams, Lee Konitz, Blue Mitchell, Gene Ammons and the Harry James Band (replacing Buddy Rich).
[2] He moved to Los Angeles and joined the Harry "Sweets" Edison group with Tommy Flanagan and Frank Delarossa.
[1] In late 1974, he toured with Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders, Martin Fierro and John Kahn, succeeding Bill Kreutzmann and preceding Ron Tutt as drummer for the configuration later named Legion of Mary.
As a bandleader, he recorded under the name Paul Humphrey and the Cool Aid Chemists with keyboardist Clarence MacDonald, guitarist David T. Walker, and bassist Bill Upchurch.