![]() ![]() Me and my brother would play videogames and listen to Zeppelin and Charlie Parker and would always sing the solos. I remember we had a German exchange student who lived with us and happened to play saxophone and he told me to turn the mouthpiece the other way and once I did that I started playing the saxophone everyday and became obsessed with it. I was really excited to start playing but we weren’t able to bring our instrument home so I snuck it home anyway and for the first week I played with the mouthpiece upside down. I quickly realized that all the recorder stuff I was doing in elementary music translated over to saxophone so I was able to transfer it over really quick. I remember looking at the saxophone and thought it looked pretty cool. I put on the saxophone mouthpiece, reed, and ligature and made a buzz or note right away and my band director told me you should play the saxophone. To this day, I want to thank my band director, Darren Webb, because I tried playing the trumpet and he told me either my teeth were too big or there was something not working with the trumpet mouthpiece so I should try the saxophone. ![]() I remember taking his trumpet since he stopped playing and was going to choose the trumpet since I was a fiscally conscious kid at 12 years old and didn’t want my parents to buy a new instrument. My other brother played trumpet so I decided I was going to try trumpet. I was interested in music and tried to play a little bit of piano, but when I reached sixth grade, it was time to pick an instrument in band. My brother started playing piano when he was five years old so since I was one years old, I was listening to Bach and Beethoven and was just inundated with music. ZS: What interested you in playing the saxophone?ĮW: It’s actually kind of a funny story. As a leader and composer, he has released four albums composed of all original music. Eric started making his national mark after playing at the legendary Newport Jazz Festival for the first time in 2019.Realizing his true passion for composing and playing his own music, Eric has since been touring the country with his self- titled group. After graduating in 2015, Eric toured Europe for a number of months while playing on cruise ships.Eric found his true calling as an artist through this realm, although the search still continues… Through his time in college, he became fixated on composing and freely improvising with other musicians. While attending the College Conservatory of Music (Cincinnati) as a classical saxophonist, Eric was named one of the top 10 saxophonists in the nation through the United States Army Solo Competition in 2012.Growing up and working in a family business that constructs stages for festivals around the country exposed Eric to music and a way of life that he would have never experienced otherwise. Eric has been surrounded by the music business for his entire life, but not on the side that you might expect.Rooted in Cincinnati Ohio, Eric Wurzelbacher is described by the Jazz Journal UK as a “foot- tapping mix of hard-bop improve and rock”.For those of you not familiar with Eric Wurzelbacher, see a brief bio below to get you up to speed. So, I reached out to Eric and he was nice enough to sit down with me and share his story. I had not heard of Eric before, but after checking out this clip (see below) at the 2022 Newport Jazz Festival, I knew I needed to find out more. ![]()
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