Music has been a lifelong journey for me. My mom and my grandparents all sang in the choir. So as a little kid, I’m going to choir rehearsal and I’m always around it. But my dad is also a music kid. We grew up in a house where vinyls were all over the place. I mean, records everywhere in the garage. He exposed me to a lot of the folks who are my favorites today, especially in jazz. I got into funk and all those different genres because of him. 

And that combination led to being in the choir in elementary school and eventually getting into trumpet in middle school. And once I started playing that, it was over with. And that love took me all the way to where I am now. 

To be honest, that came almost all the way throughout the journey, because you’re learning more and figuring it out and kind of finding your space within music. Music is one of those art forms that you can have yourself within the whole realm of it. There’s structural things, but you can be yourself in music. And especially watching my directors beforehand. I do want to acknowledge that. I tried to be [former high school band director] Mr. Thorogood. I wanted some Durango boots just because he had them, you know what I mean? 

Then going to TSU in particular, it was a matter of getting to these classes and really locking into the “how-to” when it comes to educating. That meant a lot. And this is a very standard type of answer, but being in those classes and observing and then going through and then putting yourself into those situations, letting yourself actually be yourself when you’re teaching — all that started to just happen. 

It started with an artists-in-residence program. In this program, we had the likes of Dallas Austin, we had Sir the Baptist and we had Dubba-AA. AA is my guy and an Aristocrat of Bands alum, so it was really special to be able to work with somebody who was a former student. But it ended up turning into a conversation where it’s like, “hey man, let’s do something that hasn’t been done.”

And the students … shout out to them. I mean, they are incredible. Let me paint the picture. The school year is still going on. Everybody’s doing classes. I’m still teaching my classes like normal. We still have concerts to do. We have performances, all these things. So we’re also doing this project where we have to record new material. We have to set up the band room, and we’re recording in the band room with one mic. So we might do different takes and catch different sides of the room or different sounds.

It’s an intense studio session. We have the snare drummer in the back to keep time because we can’t put a click track on in the whole room and bleed through the sound. So we’re really in the trenches making this music work. It was really a lot of work to do.

And when you do something that’s new and innovative, a lot of times people don’t understand it yet. You have to be comfortable and confident enough to go with trying. All great inventors went through this. But with this leading to the moment where we’re on the GRAMMY stage and it’s being recognized at that type of level. 

My mind jetted to the students. There’s a video where it’s announced and you see the whole student center just go insane. And even for them, at times I was like, I wonder if they even knew how impactful that moment was, you know what I mean? All those things ran through my mind, and when I got backstage, I cried. I was on the phone with a few students, and I told them, “I hope that you all are feeling just proud because of what you did.”

To me, those connections are important. I’m a big networker, you know, I love to network and to talk to people. I’m a people person anyway, so a lot of it’s organic. But I also look at some of those connections as means to put my students in position or to connect them. So much of that side is still leaning towards them. 

And I mean, I play trumpet, I write commercially now, all these different things. So it’s like let’s use these gifts that we have, especially when we love it. It’d be different if I didn’t enjoy what I was doing. I love it. If it’s music, sign me up. We [Brassville] had a concert the other night, and we had a ball. We brought in guests to perform, and the connection was crazy. But to me, I think it’s just a means to expand. Maybe it’s something that I can do to help you, something you can do to help me, and let’s just build community and grow. It turns into so many beautiful things on the back end.

Easily the first trip to the White House. That was unreal because President Obama was in office, and to be on the lawn and Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad are walking up and hyping the dancers. 

Quincy Jones came, and it was a lot of walking at the time, so they brought him in a wheelchair and sat him right beside the ladder. So when I step down off of the ladder from directing, Quincy Jones is right there to my left. I wanted to just cry right then, just from the impact that he’s had. And he said, “man, the band, the band sounds incredible, man. It’s incredible, incredible.” And I’m losing my mind, like yo, this is Quincy Jones! 

And then when President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama came out to greet us, President Obama marched out like he was in the band. And it was just so surreal to shake his hand and get a hug from the First Lady. You know, one of the most amazing moments ever. And if you were to go back and listen to the C-Span conferences that were going on that day, you can hear the band practicing literally during the conference. We were like just blowing in the back of the White House. One of the best experiences ever.

You know what? I think you might have hit it when you said the process is enough because right now it’s just unfolding. I’m looking for ways to evolve and I consider myself to be innovative in the education space. And because of that, most of my passion is in music and education and I kind of want to see where it goes. I want to let the ideas flow. It is more so, like you said, in that journey of how can I continue to, you know, reinvent myself and find what’s the next thing.

I will give you this one though: I want to continue to do more on screen type music projects. That is one of the next iterations that I’ve started stepping into. And I’m really excited for the possibilities.

Yeah, absolutely. The energy never lies. Energy is unseen. You know, we can’t physically touch it, but a lot of times you feel it and you know in the moment when you feel it, the energy doesn’t lie. And you could put that as go with your gut, however you want to, know, package that. But the energy, that’s my main message right now because that one has been on my heart recently.