a professional musician.

At the age of 19, Collette started taking musical lessons from Lloyd Reese, who also taught Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, and many others. Collette credited Reese with teaching him and the other musicians how to manage themselves in the music world. He studied with Reese for two years on saxophone, clarinet, and piano. Collette commented, "I owe a lot to him. He taught me chords, progressions, scales, harmony, etc. Before I went to Lloyd, I was just playing what I heard. I