He moved with his family to St. Louis when he was about 10. He became involved in the city's jazz scene and played alongside trumpeter Clark Terry in the late 1940s. He eventually moved to Chicago, where Sun Ra became an influence. When Ra left town in the early 1960s, he stayed, playing several instruments in Abrams' Experimental Band. In 1965, the AACM -- Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians -- was founded in his East 75th Street apartment as a way for the founding artists to play their own music, in their own venues, at a time when jazz clubs were closing around Chicago and across the country.
