He was a cornetist, bandleader, and teacher who specialized in traditional jazz. He devoted his career to playing the music of Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, and Sidney Bechet, among others.
His family moved to San Antonio when he was 12. His father ran a wholesale grocery business, but also played clarinet and sax and jammed with visiting musicians including Jack Teagarden and Jimmy Dorsey. In 1962, father and son formed what was then called the Happy Jazz Band, and eventually opened the Landing, one of the first music clubs on the San Antonio River Walk.
As a teenager, he started a quartet that played outside a Dairy Queen; they were paid with ice cream and milkshakes.