Recently Steve visited his old Auracle friend
Rick Braun
in Los Angeles.
They are standing outside the Thornton Winery in Temecula CA.



He also played a recording session with Rick and others.
Here's a photo of the percussion setup for the session:



This article recently appeared in One, Omaha's Lifestyle Magazine:



The full text of the October 2003 article:

Jazz master Steve Raybine strives to help drive the Omaha jazz scene

Story by
SCOTT CAMPBELL
Photo by
TONY PETERSEN

From "Jazz on the Green" at the Joslyn Art Museum to gigs at local restaurants, jazzman Steve Raybine has played at a wide range of events and venues in Omaha over the years.

The time, and the performances, though, appear to have passed quickly. When told that he has been entertaining Omaha audiences for 17 years now, the number seems to take him by surprise.

"Time really marches on," he says.

And so does Raybine.

At age 49, Raybine continues to pursue his passion for jazz wherever it takes him, be it a recent jazz festival in Breckenridge, Colo., or the Ak-Sar-Ben ball at the end of October.

Besides being an accomplished vibraphonist and percussionist, Raybine is a composer, arranger, performer and instructor. He's also written books.

He's a guy who's simply passionate about what he does, and what he does best is music.

Raybine's love affair with music began early. In first grade he took up piano. In fourth grade it was on to drums. By seventh grade, he had formed a jazz band that played a lot of Dave Brubeck - challenging material for any musician, let alone a group of precocious pre-teens. When Raybine wasn't performing, he was composing, an activity that remains the cornerstone of his musical experience.

After high school came college in 1972 at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in upstate New York, where Raybine formed the critically acclaimed progressive jazz ensemble Auracle. The band moved to Los Angeles and released two albums for Chrysalis records, "Glider" and "City Slickers."

Raybine later played with such luminaries as Ed Shaughnessy of "The Tonight Show Band" and jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie.

Auracle toured Europe and played several prestigious festivals, the highlight being their appearance at the famed Montreux Jazz festival in Montreux, Switzerland.

"It was a watershed moment because it was our first international exposure. The crowd went crazy for the music," Raybine said. "It was all our own stuff so it was obviously a strong affirmation that we were doing the right thing."

On the cusp of greatness after four years, the band succumbed to what brings on the demise of most bands: each member wanted to do his own thing. The first half of Raybine's music career came to an end.

Raybine returned to school. He completed his masters at the University of Wisconsin in 1986 and finished his doctorate in 1990 at the University of Iowa.

During his doctorate years, he commuted to Omaha to pursue a budding relationship with his future wife, whom he followed to Omaha after graduation.

A part-time job with UNO's music department turned into a full-time professorship and earned him the 1997 Jazz Educator of the Year Award for the State of Nebraska from the National Band Association.

"I really do love teaching," Raybine said. "I love the interaction with students. I like tapping into their own creativity, finding out what makes them tick and then really getting them excited about learning."

As much as he enjoyed teaching, Raybine wanted to get back into serious composing, something he had precious little time for between work and family. So in 2000, he left his job as an assistant professor. He started performing more and released an album. The second half of his career had officially begun.

Today, Raybine lives in Omaha with his wife, Beth Conover, a genetic counselor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The couple has two sons, David, 12 and Sam, 10 who both, naturally, are budding musicians. They both play alto sax.

Raybine's love affair with creating original music continues. Like any good jazz musician, his music is an eclectic mix of influences and styles.

"I would say it's kind of jazz R&B with a bit of an urban funk focus, yet it has a really melodic pop sensibility." Raybine said.

His latest album "Balance Act" features 10 original songs and a cover of Dennis Yoast's "Stormy." The soft jaz tunes showcase Raybine's vibraphone virtuosity and include a host of the area's best jazz artists taking guest turns. Solid all around, the album particularly excels in its melodies, something Raybine has a real affection for.

"I'm attracted to memorable melodies. Probably because some of my favorite composers are Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, Gershwin, Cole Porter - all those guys were great tunesmiths," he said. Their songs have lasted and endured because they wrote good songs, they knew how to put a good melody together."

Raybine also stays busy with a full performance schedule. He recently returned from the 2003 Genuine Jazz Festival in Breckenridge, Colo. It wa another important career as it was the debut of his new band and heralded his arrival as a regional and national artist in his own right.

He also plays several shows around Omaha, a scene he believes is on the rise.

"This city has a very fine representation of jazz musicians that are very talented and playing multiple styles. You have everything from big band to smaller combo things to a Latin jazz focus, some R&B and some more straight ahead jazz combos," Raybine said. So if you seek it out here, you can hear a cross section of different styles going on all the time."

He cites the growing number of local festivals as a sign of the scene's emergence, but he believes the city's lack of a 24-hour jazz radio station is holding it back.

"It's a missing component of the radio world here. When we had a radio station, artists like the Rippingtons, Boney James and others started coming to town and playing and people started coming out because they could hear some of their favorite artists," Raybine said. "A kickin' full-time jazz station would just make everything more vital."

In addition to his composing and performing, Raybine continues to develop the next generation of local jazz greats as a private music instructor for several age groups.

"Teaching is still an all-around, all-encompassing exhilarating experience for me. It would be hard for me to imagine not teaching in some way," he said.

In addition to more teaching and clinics, he plans to do more recording (he's already started on the next CD), do more guest performing on other artists' CDs and play in more concerts and festivals.

Most of all, he'll just keep growing and expanding as a composer and player.

"No matter how old I get, I'll always keep hitting the practice room," says Raybine, who turns 50 next June. "As I've told my students many times, if you want people to listen to you play, you'd better give them a reason to listen to you, and playing your instrument well is a good start."

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