ver since I was in the seventh grade, I’ve had a passion for jazz. I have always listened to and enjoyed a wide variety of musical genres—classical, pop, soul, rock, etc.—but the incident that had a huge impact on my life, and turned me into a future “jazz musician,” was the day my junior high school band director played me an Oscar Peterson record. Not only was I blown away by Oscar’s obviously incredible technique, but his sense of “swing” really spoke to me; every
