Music Makes Student's World go Around
By Sam Cromley
Pulse Staff Reporter
The next time you walk around campus, keep your eyes and ears open—you just might run into a music legend.
Luis Gasca, a sophomore at Palo Alto College, might not be the typical Latin superstar like Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias or Mark Anthony, but he is a legend in the Latin jazz world. Gasca's resume reads like a list of who's who in the world of entertainment. From this year's big winner at the Grammy's, Santana, to even Dirty Harry himself, Clint Eastwood, Gasca has worked with musical luminaries.
“I like the challenge, and I like the spontaneous nature,” said Gasca, who knew he wanted to be in jazz since the tender age of 15, while growing up in Houston. “Jazz is like boxing. It's a hard life, nothing easy about it. You have to know a lot about the past. There's a difference between a doctor and a surgeon, all surgeons are doctors, but not all doctors are surgeons.”
With that elevated way of thinking, Gasca has earned the respect of his peers as well as his instructor and long-time friend, Armin Marmolejo, Palo Alto's music instructor.
“I have the greatest respect in the world for the guy, because he's done so much,” said Marmolejo. “As a jazz musician, there's not that many Mexican-Americans that have had an impact in the jazz field like Luis.”
To have an individual with such a rich background in jazz is a luxury not every school has. Marmolejo understands and uses Gasca's knowledge effectively in class.
“When Luis comes to class, I like to use him as a guide,” said Marmolejo. “He's been more of a consultant, a guest artist. He comes in and talks to the students, plays solos and we listen to him.”
One of the students that hears Gasca loud and clear is Jeremy Valdez, a sophomore Music major. Valdez is the youngest member in Luis' band, “ The Mambo Kings.”
“Playing in the Mambo Kings has given me a better understanding of what I can expect for future gigs that I might play,” said Valdez.
Gasca enjoys studying at school and being able to help San Antonio and Palo Alto's small jazz community. This allows him to keep busy while staying in San Antonio, because as Gasca put it, “You can only go to the River Walk so many times.”
Luis Gasca performs at the Blue Star Brewery
Photo by Priscilla Stanley
“Now that I'm here, I enjoy waking up in the morning going to school. Keeps my mind occupied,” said Gasca. “A person my age should keep physically and mentally active.”
Even Marmolejo, who has known of Gasca since age nine and met later in Austin in 1982, appreciates Gasca's contribution to the jazz class.
“He's a real nice guy. He's real down to earth. He's a legend coming to class,” said Marmolejo. “The one thing about Luis is, the music is written— we use that music as a frame. It's kind of a skeleton of what possibly might happen, because Luis always has a way of changing the music at the spur of the moment.”
Gasca thrives on improvising and is known world wide for his ability to be flexible with the music and change the routine at the snap of a finger.
“It's never boring, because it's never the same. You can never duplicate the emotion, the feeling or the ideas,” said Gasca. “You must be able to execute what you think about. If you haven't practiced, you won't be able to improvise.”
Practice makes perfect is the old saying, and Gasca's decision to concentrate solely on the trumpet is the reason why he is so well respected.
“The trumpet is very demanding, almost as demanding as a woman,” laughed Gasca. “We don't have that much time in a lifetime to master everything.”
Gasca's life in music has allowed him to travel to many places to perform and experience things some of us can only imagine about. For example, working with Janis Joplin at the original Woodstock, or playing with Ray Charles, Santana, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, Van Morrison and many others.
“He's lived a real artist's life in the sense that he's moved from place to place, and played all over the world,” said Marmolejo.
For now though, Gasca stays in San Antonio and gets his musical kicks out of his band “The Mambo Kings.” They have rehearsed only a couple of times in an eight month period, yet they sizzled the crowd at the their most recent show at the Blue Star Brewery. Gasca remains humble, and thrives on his continuous studying.
“I have so much studying to do, musically speaking and all kinds of things,” said Gasca. “The more you learn, the more you know—the more you learn you don't know.”