I studied jazz with the great Jaki Byard from 1984 till 1988. In '84 I was living at home in State College PA ( I was twenty) and attending Penn State University. A friend of my fathers, Arthur Goldstein mentioned that Jaki taught at the New School in NYC and somehow I got his home phone number. So, of course, I just called him up and said "I play vibraphone and I would like to study with you privately." I think he was quite taken with the idea that this young kid was willing to travel all the way from State College PA to Queens NY to take a lesson with him. He would often mention this to other people when introducing me - "This is Jef, he comes all the way from Pennsylvania to take lessons!" So, once a month I would pack my vibes into my parents Volvo and drive 4 1/2 hours to Jaki's house in Queens, unpack, setup, have a 2 hour lesson, pack up and drive 4 1/2 hours home. It was worth every moment. Jaki was a wonderful teacher and a great person. We would play the blues around the keys together and Jaki would blow me away in all 12 of them. I remember one lesson where I was trying to lay down some cool flat nines and crazy stuff and Jaki stopped me and said "let's play through the keys again, but this time use only the 1st, 3rd and 5th of each chord." And let me tell you, he swung his ass off using just those notes. Once we were playing another song and Jaki yelled out "Just play the roots!", and once again blew me away. Lesson learned: Learn the basics first and keep it simple - you can do a lot with just one or two notes. Later when we starting studying composition Jaki told me a simple rule: If you want to be the band leader - show up with the music. A lesson I carry with me to this day. And when he would throw a lot of theory at me and I would say, "wait, I'm confused," he would always respond "Good. Confusion is on the path to understanding." Jaki was a great man, a wonderful teacher and a genius musician. I will always miss him.