At nine years of age, while watching a television program of a classical guitar lesson, I ell in love with the idea of playing guitar. My father bought a used guitar and a book of songs for beginner guitar. Three years later a singer-songwriter boom swept through Japan. Shortly after I got my first new guitar and tried to imitate the sounds from this period. Two years later a hard rock boom hit Japan and I copied those riffs and played in a rock band for three years. Suddenly my father passed away and I stopped playing the guitar. After a year Blues music came into my heart and I bought a Fender Telecaster and imitated the sounds of B.B. King and T-Bone Walker. I quit playing guitar again at age nineteen. Several years were spent surfing and enjoying night life. I was hospitalized shortly for a brief bought with depression. Soon afterwards I returned to guitar and experienced a musical awakening. I found a guitar teacher and enrolled in music school to study music theory, piano, and flamenco guitar which led to me performing in a few flamenco guitar shows. In the year 1999 I decided to move to New York City. Once in New York for a year, I traveled abroad to North Africa and Europe. First I visited Morocco and witnessed Ginawan Trance music. The first stop in Europe was Spain. There I met a family of gypsy flamenco musicians who invited me to perform with them. Next was France and followed by Holland where I would observe several street performers of all types including music. When I returned to New York I attended music school at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music briefly. The most influential thing that sparked my interest in Jazz music was working in a club simply known as Zinc Bar. This club was like my music college. I attended many jam sessions and played different styles of music there with musicians such as Alex Blake, Jose Conde, Alex Dias. There was always a high level of musicianship in this environment. I first saw pianist and composer James Hurt there and asked him to teach me jazz music. He said no, but he would teach me music theory from the very beginning. I studied music theory and fret board concepts with James for about three years. This has given the foundation to go in any musical direction stylistically.