I just found out about Austin's passing, and I'm in a state of shock. From the first time I met him at West LA Music sonhiwg him some keyboards, to the numerous times I heard him play at Bruce Sutherland's, to the few times I had the privilege of recording him, I recognized Austin as a creative spirit of the highest rank, an outlier in our world, a trend setter, and a fiendishly curious seeker of knowledge and experience. He was cocky in his teens, but in a very endearing way, and only because he, unlike so many others, acknowledged his greatness and embraced it. As he grew older, he matured and became more serious, clearly knowing he was here for a reason, and he leaned into the responsibility of blazing a new and as yet undiscovered pathway using jazz as his primary idiom, but fusing many more forms of musical expression in his cutting edge dialog with the Universe.In the wake of his passing, I am honored to say that I knew him, that I respected him, and that we were and still are friends ..