As a high school trumpet player, UUPer Ted Piltzecker collided with a tuba and dented his horn.

The “marching band accident,” as Piltzecker puts it, led him to the vibraphone and changed his life.

Piltzecker, an internationally-known vibraphone player, discovered the vibraphone—a xylophone-like percussion instrument with metal bars and motor-driven resonators for tone and vibrato—after bringing his trumpet to a music store for repair. He spied the vibes (short for vibraphone) and began playing it, impressing his parents so much that they got him one for Christmas.

Piltzecker, an associate professor at Purchase College, fell in love with the vibes and has been playing ever since.

“I had it in my dorm room as a student at Eastman (School of Music),” said Piltzecker, who studied trumpet and vibraphone in college. “Once I got out of school, I got steady work playing the vibes and did some major touring.”

Jazzing it up

Piltzecker, a UUPer since 1999, toured internationally as part of jazz piano icon George Shearing’s quintet in the 1970s and 1990s; he appears on jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli’s 2002 album “The Rare Delight of You,” which features Shearing and band.

Over the years, Piltzecker, has shared the stage with a who’s who of jazz greats, including Mel Torme, Joe Williams, Gene Burtoncini, Ernie Watts, and Toshiko Akiyoshi among many others. He’s also cut three albums of his own, including “Unicycle Man,” (yes, Piltzecker can ride a unicycle) a record that prompted praise from Chuck Mangione, who called Piltzecker “an original” and “… one of my favorite composers.”

“I’ve been really fortunate,” said Piltzecker. “For me, it’s all about the music. It’s all about the exchange.”

Piltzecker has also performed with classical chamber ensembles and has written music for and toured with Japanese Taiko groups and gadulka (Bulgarian violin) players. But he’s particularly passionate about Latin and world beat music and has performed in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, playing with some of the world’s best bandoneon players, such as Ricardo Fiorio, with whom he performed in Argentina. You can hear a sampling of Piltzecker’s music on his Web site, at http://www.tedvibes.com.

“I have played to some large crowds, but to me, music is about personal growth,” he said. “There’s something special about crossing cultural boundaries.”

TP and Company

Piltzecker plans to cross those boundaries again on his next album, an as-yet untitled effort featuring Purchase graduate students he’s been playing with to keep his vibraphone skills honed; Piltzecker rarely plays the vibes in class.

He liked what he heard, and thought it might be interesting to use the students—who go by TP and Company when they play out with Piltzecker—on his upcoming album. Piltzecker said he expects to release the disc in the spring and has some record label interest.

“It’s not your typical mainstream kind of jazz,” said Piltzecker. “There are world music influences, some pop, and I come from a mainstream be bop background, so there’s that too. There are songs with single line melodies and counterpoint and some thickly harmonized ballads. I’m very excited about it.’

Being a full-time professor has limited Piltzecker’s touring schedule, although he continues to line up gigs, including a July 2010 performance in Washington, D.C. at the American Guild of Organists Convention. There, he’ll join renowned organist/composer Dorothy Papadakos (Paul Winter Consort) to debut her commissioned work, “La Petite Sweet,” a tribute to Duke Ellington.

But he’d rather be at Purchase than on the road.

“Teaching at Purchase has been a wonderful experience. So is being a UUPer and being part of a union that cares about and cares for its members. I’m blessed to be here and I share that with my students,” he said. “I’m still excited about the music.”

— Michael Lisi