 As Mahanthappa tells it, "I first heard about Bunky from the late great saxophone teacher Joe Viola when I was a student at Berklee in the early 90s.Joe heard me warming up once and recommended that I check Bunky out as he thought that my approach was on track to being something similar to his.He loaned me Bunky's record "Places We've Never Been" (Vanguard) which totally knocked me out!"