I was born in 1967 in Bucharest, Romania, and began playing saxophone in 1990, under the influence of Charlie Parker, Lee Konitz and Ornette Coleman.

My first professional gig as a saxophone player was playing a solo on a song by a rock group called Timpuri Noi. After a stint with Harry Tavitian's Blues Community, I started a jazz trio in '93, which didn't last long. Then I was co-opted by poet Florin Dumitrescu into a punk-rock group he was creating, "Sarmalele Reci". It was very successful for some years and we recorded some good albums. We split in '99. Meanwhile I also played with pianist Lucian Ban's Jazz Unit, a group which became quite a sensation on the local jazz scene. I left that band because the rock thing had become very serious. At least I thought so.

After having left Sarmalele Reci I played with Vlaicu Golcea's Rebop Factory then I started transcribing big band music. One of the most interesting things I had chosen were written by Sun Ra so I sought up some of his other records and also read his biography by John Szwed. Out of this came the idea of a band called "Outer Space Seven", a septet dedicated to Sun Ra's music. After two concerts, the Seven had turned into Five.

Around 2001 after an event which changed some of my ideas about life I started writing my own music. At first it was performed alongside the Sun Ra material by the Outer Space Five (with Sorin Romanescu on guitar, Vlaicu Golcea on bass... and various drummers). Then as the new tunes were replacing the old playlist I met Tom Smith, an outstanding trombone player and big band director who had come to Bucharest as a Fullbright scholar to create and rehearse a big band within the Academy of Music. The concerts where he played as a guest with Outer Space Five (then with "iordache"... I changed the name to get more gigs and capitalize on the remains of my previous rock career) were, in a sense, the only real jazz lessons I ever had. Then I rehearsed briefly with the big band, shortly before it disbanded. Hearing Tom play and talk was listening to a true master.

My two official albums - "friday - featuring Tom Smith" and "dissipatin' " have been released by A&A records. Check out the "hear" link to enjoy some songs from these albums.

My current band includes drummer Tavi Scurtu, bassist Utu Pascu, Sorin Romanescu and Eugen Nutescu on guitars.

Five years ago, a friend started recording all my live performances. This has resulted in a few homemade records: "hesitations" (on sale at CD Baby), "naked saxophone", "cheap fun", "the lazy prince" and most recently "start from scratch" and "abstract dynamics". The covers are recycled cardboard, the graphics are mostly by my daughter Kim. She also made this website. 

Since 2003 I'm the saxophonist of rock band Kumm, from Cluj. Click on the link to find out more.