After several years on the clarinet, he was encouraged

to play the tenor sax by none other than Louis Hayes, then an

unknown young drummer in his neighborhood. Soon it became his major instrument, influenced by John Coltrane, Charles Lloyd, Joe Henderson,

Wayne Shorter and Miles Davis among others.

     An exciting and charismatic performer, Rocky plays many styles

of music - jazz, avant-garde, fusion, R&B, blues, rock and roll as well as

originals (his own and those of others) - with many accomplished musicians

and groups:

Louis Hayes, George Bohannon, Roosevelt Brown, Markus Belgrave, 

Bobby Anderson, Orthea Barnes, George Chambly, The Chisel Brothers

(1990 "Rhythm and Blues Group of the Year"), Bobby Cook, Kenny Cox,

Martin Fierro (of Santana and the Grateful Dead), Ron Pangborn

(of Was Not Was), Teddy Harris, Eddie Kesler, MadCat Ruth, the Evelyn

Martin Trio, Maruga (of Weather Report), Emmanuel Riggins (formerly

with Grant Green), Alexander Zonjik (on his very first recording), and

Gene Dunlap (formerly with Earl Klugh), John Trudell, Doug McKeehan,

Kelly Park, Mark Little, Bob Scott, John Wiitala, John Mader, Jack

Dorsey and many others, too numerous to mention.

     A few of his more well-known recording credits include Holland/Dozier/Holland (on their Warlock album, which sold

300,000 copies in five weeks); producer John Fiori (with more than 19

gold and 2 platinum records); producer/trombonist McKinley Jackson

(on the Invictus label); producer Marcus Allen for Kim Weston of Motown fame (Positive State of Mind and Positively Yes); producer Jimmy Hunter, leading Los Angeles drummer/singer/producer.

       Not only has Rocky been in constant demand as a recording artist,

he is also a prolific composer and talented producer with over 200 original compositions to date. He has written custom music scores and programmed

them for films, radio shows, commercials, meditation and relaxation tapes and CDs.

       To date he has recorded four album projects of his own original

music. His Sack Full of Dreams: Music for Creative Pleasures, with

music in the jazz, rock, classical, and New Age genres, has received top

ratings for sound quality and uniqueness of musical style from the Independent Music Guide (Carbondale), a world-wide independent music

and recording network. Another of his recordings, Jazzy Dance, led to a

major hit, "City Streets" in the metropolitan Detroit area and

received eight months of airplay on WJZZ-FM.  During the same period

he received airplay in the Bay Area by Clifford Brown, Jr., on KCSM-FM. Rocky's CD Hear the Light consists of original electronic scores

for games and animation films. His latest CD, Dancefusionism, is a 

cutting-edge electronic jazz project with melodies and straight-ahead soloing.

       Soon to be published online is his recent book project, Melodic Jazz Fusionisms, consisting of his 52 "fusionisms" of motifs, themes, and patterns inspired by some of the greatest jazz players in history.