December 14th, 2002 I was in Tribeca, NYC at Roulette playing with the great William Parker. I had been back in the city 2 years, but I was only 2 years deep on the free jazz scene having spent my 30’s trying to somehow add to what Lee Morgan and Miles had already done. That didn’t work out so well. Here I was in a room of free jazz kings: Billy Bang, Dave Burrell (from Philly!), Grachan Moncur III, Jerome Cooper, Joe Morris, and beyond and the honest to God truth is I didn’t know who anybody was. I was that green having spent most of time working as I have always had to do. I knew one thing though, I had to go for it, and I mean really go for it and play far far beyond what I thought I might be capable of. I could sense and feel the spiritual and musical power all around me. I looked around the room and saw that I wasn’t alone- I had a true ally. None other than brother Daniel Carter was there and we had already become buddies. DC was more than that in this environment. Spiritually I held on to him for dear life. WP was leading us into the tone world. I suited up with Daniel and the spaceship lifted off.
Hearing the music from this concert 20 years later left me shook. Who was I to be so bold as to declare and announce myself to the world on trumpet like this? I played way above what I felt I was capable of, and at one point I was entrusted with the music itself, and I was the call in call and response.
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