"Born March 24, 1963, in Montclair, New Jersey, Douglas grew up in the New York Metropolitan area. He started playing piano at age five and trombone at seven before discovering the trumpet two years later. He learned jazz and classical harmony in high school and began playing improvised music as an exchange student in Barcelona, Spain in 1978. From 1981 to 1983, Douglas studied in Boston at the Berklee School of Music and the New England Conservatory. He cites Igor Stravinsky, John Coltrane, and Stevie Wonder as primary influences on his music. "