Saxman Trace Zacur and band lay down fusion and funk

Seminole’s Trace Zacur didn’t always want to be a musician. As a pencil-wielding school kid, in fact, he drew and drew, and hoped that one day he could create comic books for a living.

Then he heard jazz saxophone, and it turned the whole “when I grow up” thing on its head. And his parents bought him an instrument.

That was a dozen years ago, and he’s rarely been seen in public without his sax. He graduated from Berklee School of Music in 2020 with a degree in performance.

Since his return from that prestigious Boston music school, Zacur has become a prolific member of the bay area jazz corps, often recruited to play other people’s gigs and recording sessions.

Singer Theo Valentin

He’s a bandleader, too, and has booked his next performance this Saturday, July 29, the Palladium Theater’s Side Door Café. For this show – he’s titled it Night Moves – the Trace Zacur Band includes Jordan Garno, guitar; Gumbi Ortiz, percussion; Jason Park, keyboards; Elias Tona, bass; Jean Balduc, drums; Theo Valentin, vocals.

Those are some heavy hitters, and it’s testament to Zacur’s skill, and his growing reputation, that they said “yes” when he asked them to come and play.

Gumbi Ortiz

Night Moves features a program of fusion and funk, the kind of stuff Zacur studied in school but hasn’t played a lot of. He says he wanted to challenge himself. “It’s somewhat intimidating to try to pick the players that are right for it, and prepare yourself for the work that’s got to go into it. I know I’m going to have to work, too. And the exhilaration of that philosophy was really enough.”

As for the end result, he predicts temperatures will be high. “So the music at this show will come across as entertaining and groovy, but it’s a challenge and a rush for the musicians to play.”

He was inspired by 1990s live sets from fusion masters Mike Stern (guitar) and saxophonist Bob Berg (a longtime Zacur hero, along with David Sanborn, James Carter and Michael Brecker. He’s also a Jimi Hendrix devotee).

“Some of these guys’ performances that I used to see on the internet, they (Stern and Berg) are playing for 13 minutes,” Zacur reports. “I’m not saying we’re going to go 13 minutes, but they’d be playing that long at a really fast tempo, keeping that same intensity from when they started the song all the way to the end.”

Zacur played his first gigs as a middle schooler, and as a freshman at Seminole High. “That’s when I discovered the St. Petersburg scene and the jazz musicians there,” he explains. “I’d always heard about this club, Ruby’s Elixir, so then I went there. I really enjoyed the jam session scene. I loved doing that. I loved going, calling a song, playing and trying to have a really special moment.”

Sometimes, he laughs, that “special moment” was just out of reach. “Because I’d watched all these videos of my heroes, you know? You get charged up, and you go to a jam session and you try to be like them.

“And the (the local players) definitely thought I was nuts, because I don’t think I could really play what I was hearing in my head. But I had the intention. So I would just go for it.”

Back from Berklee, he regularly attended the Monday night jazz shows at the Hangar, performed on numerous pandemic-era livestreams. His name, his face and word of his now-considerable chops started to get around. He was hired for gigs. He was in.

Still, humility is a big part of Trace Zacur’s makeup. “If somebody tells me hey, you did a great job, I appreciate you, I put a little feather in my cap,” he says. “Generally, I try to just practice every day, and work on something that I’m not good at, in preparation for whatever call I may have.

“I never accept the gratifying feeling to the extent that I won’t, tomorrow, work on my weaknesses. Just like going to the gym – you can always add another five pounds to whatever you’re lifting.”

Find tickets for the Trace Zacur Band’s July 29 performance here.