"I always wanted to play. I saw a sax player at my church one time. I was like 'Who was that?' That person was really good. And I kept begging my parents 'Can I have a saxophone, can I have a saxophone?' So they got tired of the begging and they're like 'Alright, if that's what you want to do, we'll make it happen for you,'" says Jesse, 23, who landed his first paid gig playing at The Franklin Hotel when he was spotted with his saxophone on Franklin Street. "People are shocked to hear jazz around here," he says as a passerby drops a dollar bill into his case. "It's how I express myself. It's something positive."

When he is not blowing on brass for onlookers, he's on stage throughout the Triangle as the saxophonist for the funk/jazz/jam band Boss Nacho.

(photograph taken on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill)