Trivia

He was a jazz trumpeter who explored Cuban music, electronic, soul, gospel, funk, R&B and hip-hop. His first album came out when he was 20 years old. His idol was Clifford Brown.

Both of his parents had musical talent. At age 9 he began playing a cornet his father bought at a pawnshop. He was recognized as a prodigy and attended a high school for the performing arts in Dallas. He studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston before moving to New York.

Has one daughter Kamala from a previous relationship.

He died from cardiac arrest brought on by kidney disease at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, NYC. He had been on dialysis for 13 years.