On stage with Phil Woods and Jimmy Heath

This was such an honor…to play a concert with Phil Woods and that’s Jimmy Heath cut off on the left side of the photo. I was paying close attention to Phil. I remember thinking, “How does he get so much resonance out of that horn??” His sound was so huge. His playing was a model of efficiency….his fingers, his breathing…I learned a lot that night. At the end of the night, I gave him my sax duet book. I didn’t know if I’d ever hear from him, but he called me a few weeks later to tell me that he played through the whole book with a few of his students and he liked it so much that he wanted to give me an endorsement quote for the book. Although I never studied privately with Phil, being up on stage and playing with him that night was what I consider to me be a real-world lesson with him. Thank you, Phil, for everything.