‘Jazz in the Park’ showcases talent

David Renzi

Friday, May 30, 1997 | 11:44 a.m.

This year's "Jazz in the Park" series features a wunderkind (23-year-old trumpeter Nicholas Payton), an accomplished veteran (saxophonist-flutist Lew Tabackin), a big band (led by Bob Pierson) and a pianist.

That would be Stefan Karlsson, whose young career -- a balancing act between performance and academia -- allows for the best of both worlds.

"Right now I feel I have the opportunity to pick and choose what I do," Karlsson says. "I like that, so that way I don't have to do the small, little things because there is a sense of security coming from school as far as the pay. I take the playing jobs that I feel are worth it and I know I'm going to have fun doing."

Such as Saturday night's "Jazz in the Park" opener with his quintet, a mix of seasoned pros (bassist Bob Badgley, saxophonist Joe Romano) and young guns (drummer Joe Malone, trumpeter Rocky Winslow).

Karlsson, 31, falls among the latter chronologically. He came to Las Vegas from Denver in 1993 as an artist-in-residence at UNLV. The university offered him a full-time position in September 1994. In accepting the job, Karlsson had to leave behind what most jazz musicians wouldn't: a seven-night-a-week jazz gig.

"When I was in Denver," he says, "I did great. It was a tough decision. I felt I was really growing (as a player). But I like teaching, too."

Karlsson, who has a master's degree in jazz studies from the University of North Texas, got a taste for teaching at Stanford University's jazz workshops. He is now the assistant director of the UNLV music department's jazz studies program. His duties include leading the UNLV Jazz Ensemble II and teaching improvisation, jazz keyboard and jazz repertory classes.

His primary goal is to instill in his students a basic feel for the music.

"If you don't try to really get that, later on, a lot of players learn to play sort of artificially. It doesn't sound the same," says Karlsson, who was born in Sweden and would listen to American jazz musicians, particularly piano players.

"That's what I grew up with, my father being a piano player, too."

He tells his students to listen to as many records and as many styles as they can, from ragtime to stride to swing to modern.

"How can you paint a tree if you don't know what it looks like?" he asks.

Upon graduating in 1990, Karlsson settled right into the Denver jazz scene.

"I was just lucky, 'cause we didn't really know where we were going to go after college," he says. "A lot of guys were talking about New York, but I didn't have that much money saved up. To go there without anything was something I didn't want to do at that point.

"A lot of my friends did move up there, and that was another reason I decided not to. They were struggling. They had to take day jobs and couldn't really practice. They had to worry about how to support themselves; they couldn't do it playing. You've got to find a thing that works for you, and find your own niche."

Karlsson has found his, and it suits him fine. The financial security of academia allows him to maintain a house -- which he shares with a wife and child -- and affords him the freedom to play when he wants.

"I still go out of town," he says, noting a recent appearance in Houston and a date next week in New York City, where he'll perform two concerts and record with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jimmy Cobb. The trio toured Japan last summer and will again this fall.

It's no surprise that Karlsson keeps heavy musical company.

"He's just a phenomenal player," says local drummer Bill Moody, who performs with the pianist often. "He has amazing technique, but also a tremendous lyrical sensitivity. He's a very sensitive player and plays very lyrical solos, but has virtually no ego at all. He just likes to play."

Moody says Karlsson has reached the point technically that "when he thinks of an idea, he can do it a nanosecond later. He is also growing and continuing to develop as a player; I think he is already a major talent."

He has four records out under his own name, with another one due in stores in the fall. Recorded locally, it includes Winslow, saxophonists Phil Wigfall and Mark Solis, bassist Tom Warrington and drummer Ed Soph.

Karlsson gives his thanks to Dr. Howard Hoffman, a local arts patron, for underwriting the project.

His compositions have also been turning up as background music on televisions shows ("Melrose Place," "Party of Five") and in movies ("Sugar Hill"), thanks to a publishing contract.

"I understand it's a tough business," he says, "and I'm trying to do as much as a I can, as far as taking different roads. I think you really have to expand on yourself. Do some writing, go with a publishing company, do record gigs, play festivals. It's really about marketing yourself very wide."