JEFF KORBELIK / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, April 14, 2005 7:00 pm
When it comes to music, Stefan Gaspar is as accomplished as they come. He studied at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood and went on to earn a degree at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
One of his instructors at Berklee was trumpet great Herb Pomeroy, who taught him the ins and outs of composition.
When Gaspar came to Lincoln 14 years ago, he surrounded himself with some of the area's top players Andy Hall (bass), Joey Gulizia (drums) and Tom Larson (piano) to form The Jazz Factory. The ensemble has five CDs to its credit. Nebraska Jazz Orchestra pianist Tom Harvill recently replaced Larson, who left the group. Review: Vocals add distinctive note to 'Project'
Yet despite his resume, Gaspar remains virtually unknown outside of Lincoln.
Hall said it's because music is not Gaspar's full-time job. He is a managing partner and broker at Chateau Development.
"I know (music) is his first love, but he's confined to managing his properties and doesn't think about traveling around that much," Hall said.
Gaspar, 44, admitted that if he had his druthers he would play his guitar and saxophone night and day.
"But you really have to come to grips with economic reality," he said.
So he creates music for music's sake and performs when he can.
Like tonight.
The Jazz Factory will play a benefit concert at 8:30 p.m. at the Rococo Theatre in downtown Lincoln. Part of the proceeds will benefit the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools.
Those who know Gaspar and his music will discover he has gone in a different direction.
He recently added local vocalist Terri Jo Dodson to the group. She performed on the ensemble's fourth and fifth CDs, which came out last year.
"What makes my band different from anybody else's is the uniqueness of the sound," Gaspar said. "It is the combination of acoustic instruments and the improvisational aspect of instrumental jazz music and combining these two aspects with lyrics and putting them in a song format."
Of course, those who know Gaspar aren't surprised the musician/composer is on a new course. He's been like that since he started piano lessons at age 6.
Five years later, he took up the clarinet; four years after that it was the guitar and a couple of years later he began playing the saxophone because he liked the way it sounded on a Billy Joel album.
"I can't help it," Gaspar said of his music addiction. "I get antsy. I want to play music. I want to write music. It's just me."
The first song Gaspar learned on his guitar was "Camptown Races" or, as he likes to call it, the "DuDa" song from "Looney Tunes."
He was living in his native Munich, Germany, when he would sling his guitar over his shoulder and pedal his bike to the nearby Protestant church, where he took lessons from a long-haired rocker who drove a lime green VW Bug.
He liked the fellow, who, unlike his clarinet teacher, encouraged rather than berated him.
"I never once saw (the clarinet teacher) play," Gaspar said, reminiscing last week from his cluttered office. On one wall hangs his music degrees as well as his MBA from Duke University, which led to his career in real estate development and management.
"He just stood there and told me all the things I was doing wrong," he added.
Gaspar came to the United States at age 19 to study at the Musicians Institute (then called the Guitar Institute of Technology).
Soon after his arrival, he vividly remembers passing a man carrying a live boa constrictor around his neck on Hollywood Boulevard.
Welcome to America.
At the institute, his music education really kicked into gear.
It hasn't stopped.
After years of playing, creating and recording "traditional" jazz the kind with 10-plus-minute songs and numerous solos he decided it was time to change.
"While I respect the tradition of jazz music, jazz needs new songs and new ideas," he said. "That's why I write songs and compose original music with a contemporary twist."
Hall, for one, likes Gaspar's new direction.
"I think it's easier to listen to and more accessible to the public because it has lyrics and vocals," he said. "I don't want to say it's more commercial. It's just different, with more kinds of contemporary rhythms."
Making his music accessible is the reason Gaspar is heading down this new path.
"Music is a communication form," he said. "It's a way to express and communicate your feelings. If there's nobody to communicate to what's the point?"
The key was finding a vocalist. He found one in Dodson, who he says has the "voice of an angel."
Dodson is known in Lincoln as a folk singer but has shown her versatility. She's part of the a cappella trio Baby Needs Shoes and also has performed jazz with University of Nebraska-Lincoln trumpet professor Darryl White and local band Toot Sweet.
But with Toot Sweet, she sang standards.
"This is all original and quite different," she said. "It's a challenge."
Different is what Gaspar is after. He said jazz vocal music consists primarily of old standards think "My Funny Valentine," "Come Fly With Me," "Autumn Leaves," etc.
"I'm trying to expand the jazz language and search for new directions by composing and writing new songs," he said.
Because for him, it's all about the music.
Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.
If you go
What: Stefan Gaspar and the Jazz Factory
Where: Rococo Theatre, 13th and P streets
When: 8:30 p.m. today
Tickets: $25, $12; 476-4467
Note: A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools.