ABOUT TO TURN 30, Peven Everett has accomplished more than most of us will in a lifetime. Actually, he accomplished more before he turned 20 than most of us will accomplish in a lifetime.

Peven Everett was born in Harvey, Illinois, on June 2, 1976. That makes him a Gemini, for all of you keeping track.

"Harvey was nice growing up," Peven explained. "You had your barrio feel with taco stands, but there wasn't much commerce. We had a mall, until the Blues Brothers came and tore that up. A $5 million mall, and they had to drive all kinds of cars through it.

"Harvey was about surviving. I lost my brother early on, to the same neighborhood and the same kind of mentality that resides in some of the worst neighborhoods in the Chicago metropolitan area... When that happened, I knew that there was a whole 'nother purpose.

"He died at 22. I was about 8 or 9. It was one of the weirdest, but still one of the most effective times of my life. It strengthened me, it gave me compassion. It showed me about pain, suffering, beauty and pain, suffering. And it was a really crucial point in my learning experience musically.

"At 4 or 5 I'm playing the piano and drums, but I'm just playing what I'm hearing. But I'm not playing for something to heal me out of the machine... That started happening when my brother passed. When I started looking further into the machine, I kinda dived into the music. And I haven't come out of it, quite frankly."

His life changed dramatically again when he was offered a full scholarship to study at Berkley School of Music. Quickly, though, his spotlight talent presented him with an agonizing dilemma - to study at coveted Berkley, or, barely out of high school, to go on tour with jazz greats Branford and Wynton Marsalis and Betty Carter.

"Man, that was hell on me," he said. "I can't front - it was terrible. The first two or three days, I went through a lot of emotional stuff. Am I really screwing my life up? I was really, really hurting about that [decision.]"

But he decided to go on tour, and no one at Berkley could blame him. Still, it wasn't as fun as he thought it was going to be. "It was work in the worst way: that ass-kicking, thrashing work. And [Wynton] really whipped me in the kind of shape that I don't think he even understood. I don't think he knew at the time how much he taught me. He'll know now though, when he hears the music come out."

New York City gave Peven amazing experiences and life lessons. His first gig out of town, ever, still barely out of high school, was at Carnegie Hall. And Bill Cosby was the emcee.

"He was backstage laughing at me," tells Peven. "He was tapping me on the shoulder, saying 'You're the young brother with the trumpet case.'"

Earlier that night, Peven had the feeling he had forgotten something. When he got to Carnegie Hall, it hit him.

"This is the first time I had ever come close to peeing my pants," he said. "I had never been that scared before. I thought I was going to be fired. I'm never gonna work anywhere again. This is the biggest gig of my life, Lord, help me please!"

Peven forgot the key to his trumpet case.

Quickly a man found a crowbar and pried Peven's trumpet case open, breaking the latches off. Shards went everywhere. Peven snatched the trumpet out of his case and ran to the stage. Ten minutes later, he had to hit cold turkey.

"It was unbelievable, but it was good. It all worked out. Standing O, everything was cool - they liked me. I lucked out."

Although still a teenager, he had the maturity to learn from this. "Everything went wrong. Everything that was supposed to go right went wrong. That was definitely one of the gigs I'll be telling my kid about for awhile. That one taught me so many lessons: Preparedness. Don't be forgetful. Realize that you can be forgetful if you're hysterical or nervous."

The biggest lesson? "Know what to say in front of Bill Cosby," Peven chuckled. "He was making jokes, but he was clearly irritated. But for real, now I can say, 'I done pissed off Bill!'"

Peven's second love is playing music. (I'll get to his first love later on.) He has difficulty saying how many instruments he plays, because he's fooled around with so many.

"I don't know how to play all the woodwinds, like the oboe or bassoon - all the stuff that's probably more European-based. But the things that were in the big bands, jazz bands and regular orchestras, I'm pretty proficient at those."

In general, though, chalk him up for keys (piano, organ, electronic keyboard), percussion (drums, African and Latin drums, anything you can shake or hit), guitars (electric, acoustic, bass), horns (trumpet, trombone), and some woodwinds (alto sax, flute). What's left?