Born September 3, 1937, Indianapolis, IN, USA. 2005 -- Doctor of Performing Arts - University of Maryland Eastern Shore. 1993 -- Master of Arts, Cultural Policy - State University of New York/Empire State College. 1971 -- Bachelor of Science, Music Education - Indiana University (1955-1959)/New York University (1968-1971). Professor of Music, Emeritus - Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, beginning 1999 Professor of Music - Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 1971-1999 Chairman - Music Department, Livingston College of Rutgers University, 1972-1980 Chief Architect, beginning 1971, Rutgers University undergraduate/graduate Jazz performance degree programs. Adjunct Professor of Jazz Bass - Manhattan School of Music, NYC, 1991 - Present. National Endowment for the Arts: Jazz Panelist, 1974-1978 (Panel Chairman, 1976-1978); National Coordinator - Jazz Artists in Schools Pilot Program, 1978-1982. Music Panelist - NY State Council on the Arts, 1987-1990; United States Information Agency, 1992; and numerous other State arts agencies beginning in the 1970s to the present, e.g., NC, PA, MI, NJ, OH, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation; New York Foundation for the Arts; Executive Director - African American Jazz Caucus (AAJC) (a former affiliate of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE), beginning in the Fall of the year 2000 to the present. 9/16/2001 - 6/30/2002 Member Board of Directors, Madame C.J. Walker Theatre Center, Indianapolis, IN 2001 - Recipient of the Howard University "Benny Golson Award". 1999 - Inducted into the Down Beat Magazine Jazz Education Hall of Fame. 1998 - Inducted into the International Association of Jazz Educators Hall of Fame, NYC Convention. 1997 - Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation's "Living Legacy Jazz Award", Kennedy Center, Washington DC. Leader, Bassist and Artistic Director - the JAZZ LEGACY ENSEMBLE® , 1985 to the Present. 1982 - CoFounder & Partner - Jazz Cultural Theatre, NYC, w/Barry Harris, Jim Harrison, Frank Fuentes. 1977 - While performing in Lesotho, Southern Africa - Given the Sesotho name, Tsepo , which means Hope, Trust. JAZZ ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: Grambling College; Southern University; University of Utah; Drake University; Creighton University; Colorado College; Penn State University; Bowdoin College; Alcorn State; Bennington College; College of the Virgin Islands; University of Natal-Durban (under the auspices of the United States Information Service); Madame Walker Theatre Center, Indianapolis, IN - 7/1/2002 to 9/30/2002; Northern Illinois University; University of Maryland Eastern Shore; University of the Virgin Islands; Schomburg Center/New York Public Library - 1993 to the present. INTERNATIONAL CONCERTS, NIGHTCLUBS, RADIO, TELEVISION, RECORDINGS: with Pepper Adams; Toshiko Akiyoshi; Mousey Alexander Trio; Ernestine Anderson; "Killer" Ray Appleton; Harold Ashby; Dave Bailey; Chet Baker Quartet; Dave Baker Big Band and small groups; Bill Barron; Kenny Barron; Benny Barth; Gary Bartz; Edgar Bateman; Alvin Batiste; Marcus Belgrave; Louis Bellson; George Benson; Walter Benton; Leonard Bernstein; Eddie Bert; Gene Bertoncini; Skeeter Best; Walter Bishop Jr.; Art Blakey; Carla Bley; Ruby Braff; Buster Brown; Hallie "The Comet" Bryant; Darius Brubeck; Kenny Burrell; Jaki Byard; Charlie Byrd; Donald Byrd; George Cables; Jay Cameron; Conte Candoli Quartet (w/Slide Hampton, Benny Barth); Harry Carney; Joe Carroll; Benny Carter; Betty Carter; Nell Carter; Joe Chambers; Dennis Charles; Doc Cheatham; Ray Chew/Alicia Keys; Don Cherry; Jimmy Cobb; Al Cobine; Jimmy Coe; Al Cohn; Cozy Cole; Cy Coleman; George Coleman; Ornette Coleman; Junior Cook; Keith Copeland; Chick Corea; Hank Crawford; Harold Cumberbatch; Andrew Cyrille; Albert Dailey; "Dameronia" -- Leader-Philly Joe Jones, after Joe's death, drummer Kenny Washington played a few gigs with us, Walter Davis Jr., Johnny Coles, later Virgil Jones, Cecil Payne, Frank Wess, Charles Davis, later Clifford Jordan, Britt Woodman, later Benny Powell, Don Sickler- trumpet and Dameron music transcriber along with John Oddo; Charles Davis; Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis; Walter Davis Jr.; Vic Dickenson; Roger Dickerson; Phyllis Diller; Sam Dockery; Eric Dolphy; Bobby Donaldson; Lou Donaldson; Dorothy Donegan; Kenny Dorham; Hobart Dotson; Kenny Drew; Ted Dunbar; Frankie Dunlop; Harry "Sweets" Edison; Duke Ellington & his Orchestra; Mercer Ellington; Herb Ellis; Booker Ervin; Tal Farlow; Art Farmer/Jim Hall Quartet,with Walter Perkins; Tommy Flanagan; Frank Foster; Panama Francis; Bud Freeman; Don Friedman; Curtis Fuller; Red Garland; Errol Garner; Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell; Stan Getz; "Giants of Jazz"--Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, Curtis Fuller, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey & LR; Dizzy Gillespie; John Gilmore; Spaulding Givens; Benny Golson; Paul Gonsalves; "Babs" Gonzalez; Benny Goodman; Dexter Gordon; Lulu Gotsana; Stephane Grappelli; Benny Green (trombonist); Bunky Green; Chuck Green; Everett Greene; Freddie Green; Grant Green; Urbie Green; Charles "Majeed" Greenlee; Tiny Grimes; Sol Gubin; Bobby Hackett Quintet; Al Haig; Jim Hall; Chico Hamilton; Jimmy Hamilton; Lionel Hampton; Slide Hampton Octet and small groups; Herbie Hancock; Roland Hanna; Barry Harris; Lanny Hartley; Coleman Hawkins; Louis Hayes; Roy Haynes Quartet; Albert "Tootie" Heath; Jimmy Heath; Joe Henderson; Al Hibbler; John Hicks; Billy Higgins; Andrew Hill; Lonnie Hillyer; Milt Hinton; Johnny Hodges; Uncle Ben Holiman; Elmo Hope; Lex Humphries; Roger Humphries; Joe Hunt; Earmon Hubbard Jr.; Freddie Hubbard; Bobby Hutcherson; Milt Jackson; Oliver Jackson; Billy James; Clifford Jarvis; "Jazz Legacy Ensemble", Leader; Paul Jeffries; Alonzo "Pookie" Johnson; Gus Johnson; Sonny Johnson; Elvin Jones; Hank Jones; Papa Jo Jones; Philly Joe Jones; Thad Jones; Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra; Virgil Jones; Clifford Jordan; Duke Jordan; Connie Kay; Wynton Kelly; Barney Kessel; Joe Kennedy, Jr.; Alan Kiger; Willis Kirk; Lee Konitz; Gene Krupa; Steve Kuhn; Don Lamond; Cliff Lehman; Mel Lewis; John Lewis; Abby Lincoln; Booker Little; Mundell Lowe; Harold Mabern; Shelly Manne; Albert Mangelsdorf; Lawrence Marable; Charlie Mariano; Hugh Masekela; Johnny Mathis; Stu Martin; Ronnie Mathews; Lenny McBrowne; Larry McClellan; Brownie McGee; Howard McGhee; Dave McKenna; Jackie McLean; Marian McPartland; Charles McPherson; Carmen McRae; Mabel Mercer; Don Michaels; Walt Miller; Harold Minerve; Charles Mingus; Al Minns/Leon James; Blue Mitchell; Hank Mobley; Grachan Moncur III; Thelonious Monk Quartet; James Moody; Danny Moore; Buddy Montgomery; Monk Montgomery; Wes Montgomery; Lee Morgan; Benny Morton; J.C. Moses; Ray Nance; Phineas Newborn; David "Fathead" Newman; Joe Newman; Newport Jazz Festival All-Stars; Herbie Nichols; "Big Nick" Nicholas; Red Norvo; Jimmy Nottingham; Anita O'Day; Jimmy Owens; Buddy Parker; Leo Parker; Paul Parker; Donald Patterson; Cecil Payne; Freda Payne; Walter Perkins; Coleridge Taylor Perkinson; Charli Persip; Oscar Peterson Trio; Flip Phillips; Sonny Phillips; John Pierce; Bucky Pizzarelli; Al Plank; "The Platters"; Paul Plummer; Bernard "Pretty" Purdie; Sonny Redd (nee Sylvester Kyner); Melvin Rhyne; Dannie Richmond; Ben Riley; Max Roach; Timmie Rogers; Sonny Rollins; Bobby Rosengarden; Charlie Rouse; Ernie Royal; "Rutgers/Livingston Jazz Professors"- Larry Ridley(Leader), Ted Dunbar, Kenny Barron, Frank Foster, Freddie Waits; Davey Schildkraut; Hazel Scott; Tony Scott; Don Shirley Trio; Woody Shaw; Wayne Shorter; Horace Silver Quintet (w/Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson, Roger Humphries, later Tyrone Washington); Zoot Sims; Pete (La Roca) Sims; Hal "Cornbread" Singer; Jimmy Smith; Willie "The Lion" Smith; Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra; Jimmy Spaulding; Marvin Stamm; Slam Stewart; Sonny Stitt; Clarence (Scobey) Strohman; Frank Strozier; John Stubblefield; Sun Ra Arkestra; Ralph Sutton; Lew Tabackin; Buddy Tate; Grady Tate; Arthur Taylor Jr.; Billy Taylor Trio, Les Taylor Jr., Coleridge Taylor-Perkinson, Clark Terry, Sonny Terry; Ed Thigpen; Bobby Thomas; Willie Thomas; Charles Toliver; Ross Tompkins; Tommy Turrentine; McCoy Tyner; Jerry Tyree; Earl VanRiper; Joe Venuti; Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson; Freddie Waits; Earl "Fox" Walker; Cedar Walton; James "Jabbo" Ware; Dinah Washington; Chuck Wayne; George Wein; Frank Wess; Randy Weston; Josh White; Joe Wilder; Cootie Williams; Earl Williams; Joe Williams; Richard Williams; Tony Williams; Larry Willis; Gerald Wilson; Phil Woods; Jimmy Wormworth; Richard Wyands; Cecil Young; David Young; Snooky Young; "Young Giants of Jazz" (Joe Henderson, Jimmy Owens, Gary Burton, Cedar Walton, Roy Haynes, & LR); Trummy Young; Kiane Zawadi; Attila Zoller; etc.