I always remember loving music. When I was 4 or 5 years old I used to get my mothers pots and pans out of the cupboard and beat on them with spoons, that's when I knew I was interested in playing drums. My first real instrument was a set of traps that my father got me for my 10th birthday. I played those for a couple of years until my cousin brought me some 45 records of Latin music. I really liked the rhythms that were going on underneath without traps. I put the traps down and started picking up the tims, congas and everything else.

    I was the only one in my immediate family that was musically inclined, but I have a couple of cousins that play in some professional Latin bands in Puerto Rico. Raymond Rodriguiz plays trumpet with Sonora Poncena. I never played with my cousins because they were older and lived on the island. I come from a large family and being that there is a certain poverty level that didn't allow for my parents to send me for any formal music training, most of skills come from being self taught. Now don't misunderstand we didn't know we were poor as kids we had a lot of fun, but looking back, yeah we was pooo.

    I first started playing in bands in my late teens. The first band I played in was from Vineland and was named Picante Nuevo. Picante Nuevo was a 14-piece Latin band; we had a wind section. I was their timbale player for about a year and a half. Our singer died and from that point forward the band declined so much that it just no longer existed. After that I just freelanced with a lot of Latin bands.

    What developed my skills was that I used to lock myself in a room and just play percussion for 6, 8, 10 hours a day. I did that for a number of years, from the time I was 13 until I was about 18 years old. I just loved to play, I didn't know I was developing skills, I was just having fun. Doing that kept me out of a lot of trouble I saw my friends getting into.

    Some of my favorite players are Manny Oquendo; he was one of the founders of the Mozambique rhythms that was very famous in the early 60's. Of course Tito Puento, who was the king of the mambo, he's in a class by himself. Conga player its got to be Poncho Sanchez, I consider him one of the fabulous in conga playing. The grandfather would probably be Mongo Santamaria on the congas, which I think is the beginning of the foundation in Latin jazz and Latin rock beats, and rhythms.

    My introduction to Exit45 came from Clarence. Clarence is one of the co-founders of Exit45, he and I used to work a 9 to 5 together and one day he asked me to come and sit in at one of the rehearsals. I met Roosevelt and the other pupils of the band. One thing lead to another and the next thing you know I was a member of the band. What I find uplifting about this band is the discipline. There has to be a certain amount of discipline necessary to put the quality in the music. With the mature ages of the members of the band even though we all are night and weekend music warriors, because we all have that 9 to 5 day gig, everyone is extremely serious about the music. And it is that seriousness that makes the music as powerful as it is when we play it. That is what I love about this band. Its not about just playing to make money, even though we like money, the primary concern is that the music is tight and right.