From Jazz Right Now:
Sorey was born and raised in Newark, NJ and developed a curiosity about new music from an early age. By high school he had found a handful of friends and elders in the community who also helped open doors. He grew up playing trombone and found himself rehearsing every Friday night with other like-minded people and playing small gigs and weddings. It was through a friendship with the late poet and jazz aficionado Halim Suliman, however, that he met Amiri Baraka, and soon thereafter he met, studied with, and performed with many established figures such as Steve Colson, Grachan Moncur III, John Hicks, and others. At Baraka’s house, Sorey was drawn into ongoing conversations about politics, music, and what was going on in Newark and its surrounding areas during that time. As he became more enmeshed in the community of musicians in Newark, he caught his first break when he was asked to perform in Baraka’s Lost Jazz Shrines project, and later on in a Baraka-led production with legendary drummer-composer Max Roach.
Avant Music News 