I studied classical music for a year. Then, I studied jazz for a year at the New School, and then I got kicked out. You had to go to your class, so I don't know if that counts as studying. I didn't study jazz. I was supposed to.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Jazz is not the kind of music you are going to learn to play in three or four years or that you can just get because you have some talent for music.
When I started music, I started out in Puerto Rico with classical music. But what really made me want to be a musician was jazz, and because I didn't grow up with jazz, I had to learn it from a very basic level. I had to go into the history and learn everything about the development of the music, all the players and all that stuff.
I've been studying on my own. I'm not really trained. I went to school for about a year and a half. I never really studied music, but, I mean, I did. I studied for two years, maybe.
So I went into jazz and performed in jazz clubs all over the country.
My mother was a jazz fanatic and she wanted me to play the piano so I could play jazz tunes. I wish I had learned but I was too busy getting into trouble!
And I played in jazz band as well during all three years in school.
Some people go to college. For me I studied music my whole life. That was my college.
When I finished school, I didn't continue to go to university, because I decided I wanted to do music.
It's funny to find there are still people around who think if a musician has schooling, it automatically makes him a lesser jazz player. But you don't learn jazz in school.
I never studied jazz technically; I just know and love the music.