copland became part of the jazz scene in philadelphia in the early 1960s as a saxophonist, and later moved to new york city, where he experimented with electric alto saxophone. in the early 1970s, while pursuing his own harmonic concept, he grew dissatisfied with what he felt were inherent limitations in the saxophone and moved to the baltimore-washington d.c. area, where he remained for a decade to retrain as a jazz pianist. he returned to new york in the mid-1980s.