I grew up in Orangeburg, South Carolina, which has the PROUD distinction of being the home to two of the eight Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the STATE: South Carolina State University and Claflin University. When I was a KID riding around town with my GRANDFATHER, we often drove by the colleges.

When Delaware STATE UNIVERSITY was founded in 1890, it was not by choice, but by SOCIAL REALITY.

I studied OPERA for a year at GEORGIA State University, but I wasn't INTERESTED in that meticulous, technical APPROACH to music. So I left SCHOOL and went back to jazz.