Creative improvising saxophonist Blaise Siwula began studying the alto sax at the age of 14, playing in his middle-school concert band. Hearing John Coltrane's LP Om in 1969, he was compelled to take the tenor saxophone and make his voice heard on it. Siwula was influenced by Art Pepper, Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, and many other artists he saw perform in the '70s. He settled in New York City in 1989, and after periodic explorations of drama, poetry, architecture, and visual art, Siwula made his music available through independently produced cassette tapes. Since then, the self-determining artist has been actively involved with the metro New York improvisation scene, working with Amica Bunker, the Improvisers Collective, and (most prominently) the Citizens Ontological Music Agenda (COMA) series.