he didn't want to become one at first. Instead, he wanted to be a baseball player. However, he found it frustrating that he couldn't hit a ball with a bat and found it equally embarrassing that he couldn't help singing in key because he had perfect pitch.

Tony started playing drums at age 8, then picked up both the upright and electric bass the following year. At first he considered drums as his primary instrument until age 11 when he met his future bass teacher Rodney Whitaker, who immediately inspired him to focus more on the bass. He then started to formally study classically and learned how to improvise by attending after-school programs in Detroit and to summer music camps during his middle school and high school years. The icing on the cake was when he started to sharpen his professional experience by gigging around the Detroit area.

In the beginning of 2010, Tony moved to New York, where he's been calling it home ever since. He attended the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music where he developed a very close relationship with one of his teachers; legendary bassist Bob Cranshaw, and is currently finishing up his Master's degree at Rutgers University for Jazz History and Research where his master's thesis reflects on Mr. Cranshaw's illustrious music career.

As a bassist and performer, Tony understands the importance of being a sideman, however he would like to eventually lead his own projects in the near future, where he can offer his composing and arranging skills to the table.

Educationally, as much as he believes that it's important to be open to all kinds of music, Tony holds a firm root on tradition and urges the vital importance to study all of the masters in previous generations.

There's hardly a moment when Tony's not doing anything around music, but he has kept his childhood passion of baseball. Although he doesn't play it anymore, he still has as much knowledge and insights of the game as he does with music, particularly jazz. Fresh out of graduate school, only time will tell where and when this young musician will end up.