- French horn player in classical and jazz pieces, composer, teacher, radio person.
- In 1959, pianist, composer and bandleader Gil Evans asked him to help make an album, "Great Jazz Standards". That led to club and recording work with other major jazz figures, including saxophonist Cannonball Adderley and singer Ella Fitzgerald.
- After his military service, he went to Europe and played French horn in the Vienna Philharmonic and the Wiesbaden Symphony in Germany. He also had a side gig singing in nightclubs.
- He taught music at Dartmouth, where students nicknamed him "Brother Ah" for his habit of beginning sentences with "Ah".
- When he was 9, he received a trumpet for Christmas. He took lessons from a neighbor, trumpeter Benny Harris, known for his bebop standard "Ornithology," co-written with and recorded by Charlie Parker. He attended the School of Performing Arts in Manhattan, where he volunteered when the orchestra needed someone to play the French horn solo in Dvorak's "New World Symphony" at the graduation ceremony. That performance won him a full scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music. He later left school to serve in the Air Force during the Korean War.
- He grew up in the Bronx. His father was a singer who performed in Broadway shows and Harlem nightclubs, then got a job with Consolidated Edison power company. His mother was a clerk at Woolworth's.
- Has three children: one daughter, Dara and two sons, Alex and Busheka.
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