T.K. Blue is a musician of the highest caliber who is at the peak of his creative output. His artistry is found on over seventy recordings and has performed with a long list of great international artists. T.K. graduated with a B.A. in Music and Psych. from New York Univ. and a Master’s in Music Ed. at Columbia Univ. He is now the Director of Jazz Studies at Long Island University-LIU-Post Campus directing the big band, jazz combos, teaching music theory and jazz improvisation, Jazz History, the History of Rock, World Music, and private students. At NYU, he studied with saxophonist-composer Jimmy Giuffre, whose emphasis on having a beautiful tone and playing melodically would became hallmarks of Blue’s mature style. He took advantage of free jazz classes offered around New York City by the organizations Jazzmobile, Henry Street Settlement, The Muse, and Jazz Interactions. His teachers at those programs included Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Ernie Wilkins, Paul West, Billy Mitchell, Reggie Workman, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Yusef Lateef. Gigging around NYC in the mid-Seventies with the Natives, a group led by South African pianist Ndikho Xaba, he met Abdullah Ibrahim, then known as Dollar Brand. Joining the exiled South African pianist’s band in 1977, he spent three years touring the world with Ibrahim, with whom he recorded three albums.