SAXOPHONE

Don has been playing the saxophone for over thirty years. When he was thirteen he found the album Buck Clayton and his All Stars in his dad's record collection and it changed his life. "Yeah, it was like wow all those cats swinging so hard I could not believe how great the sax could sound. Of course those guys were all from Count's band. I played along with that record every day for a year" Don recalls. Don eventually studied with some great teachers. Alan Mandel: Alan played all the woodwinds, piano, guitar and everything else you could think of, and played them well. "He hipped me to play along with the records, he was great. He'd make me photocopies and tapes" Jeff Lang: "I heard Jeff play with Clem DeRosa when he had a big band and they would play those Tuesday night concerts in Huntington. I loved Jeff's tone and he played alto and tenor in the band and I would always see him talking to the kids after the show so I got his card. Jeff first got me playing transcriptions of great tenor solos. The first one was Trane's solo on Oleo from a Miles album. I still know the whole thing. I got into the All Suffolk County band with that. I studied some flute with Jeff too." Greg Bobulinski:  "Greg is a very serious trumpet guy, a heavy concept guy. He taught me alot about structure and the "art" part of it" Ralph Lalama: "Ralph was really an inspiration because he's such a great tenor player and a great guy. Ralph taught me the craft part of it. He told me "You have alot of work to do, so you may as well enjoy it." We shared a love of Sonny Rollins and Hank Mobley. Ralph forced me to transcribe full solos and I didn't want to let him down. I spent hours at first. He said it would get easier and it did. My improvising and reading really took off from there." Don has had the opportunity to perform with many jazz artists: Clark Terry, Roy Haynes, Jerome Richardson, Billy Mitchell, Wes Bellcamp, Roy Hargrove, Russell Malone, Paquito D'Rivera, Randy Brecker, Byron Stripling, The Long Island Jazz Orchestra, as well as popular favorites; Ronnie Spector, Pater Duchin Orchestra, Kameleon, and The Affordables and has led his own group Don T's Inferno. When Don isn't performing or teaching sax lessons, he enjoys fishing, watching sports on TV, working out, drinking beer and sleeping.