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I was a born rock n' roll sax player.

I've been listening to jazzmen, especially saxophonists, since the time of the early Count Basie records, which featured Lester Young. Pres was my first real influence, but the first horn I got was an alto, not a tenor.

When somebody turned me on to a Coltrane record around seventh grade, I took up saxophone.

I was inspired by my dad; he played trumpet in high school.

I played the sax at school. I was in marching band.

My father was a Norwegian tenor and my mother a New York Irish librarian.

My grandfather, Arthur Baskerville, he played and still plays a little bit piano and trombone, and so when I was a kid, I always heard jazz around the house, but I also went to his gigs, whether it be a Saturday brunch in my hometown Columbus, Ohio. We'd go and hear him play with some of the local musicians.

My main influences have always been the classic jazz players who sang, like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole and Jack Teagarden.