How did the Apex Project come about?
DL: About six years ago a friend of mine turned me on to a young clarinet and saxophone player named Pete Martinez, who was then a freshman at Long Island University. Pete was into old jazz and looking for a teacher who had respect for the kind of music he wanted to play. I don’t generally teach, but when I heard Pete I recognized a great deal of potential in him. He studied with me for four years, while he was at LIU. For his senior year, I wanted to do something a little different—a “senior project.” Pete had a knack for doing transcriptions of old recordings, as did I, so I came up with the idea of doing a tribute to Jimmie Noone. He and I would do the transcriptions. We’d have a two-reed front line, like Noone’s band. So I called it the Apex Project. JB: I think you lead another band at that club, don’t you? DL: I’ve also played with a band at Terra Blues I call the Anachronists. I have a passion for old songs, especially old songs that have been neglected. Over the years I’ve coll
