Hal Stein

Hal Stein was my teacher from around 1986-88. He taught me a lot about Charlie Parker and Lester Young, and was a great devotee of be-bop.

Hal was the first teacher from whom I really got a good understanding of jazz, by his pointing me the way. He showed me patterns and ii-V-I licks, how to play over Jamie Aebersold records, and some great Lester Young solos he had transcribed, which I studied very avidly. Hal was a great saxophone player and I was very sad to hear of his passing in 2008.