About Us
Three-Two Music Publishing was established in 1994 by Steve Alcalá, a 32 year music educator in Fresno, California. In 1982 Steve established the first high school Latin jazz ensemble in the country at Roosevelt High School in Fresno. He quickly found that the resources for authentic Afro-Cuban arrangements for classroom use were nonexistent. To establish the class musical library he first transcribed all of the material himself. A few years later he had the idea of asking the composers from his favorite CDs to provide transcriptions of the recordings. As Steve recalls, "Back then you could just call the musicians union and ask for a phone number and get it. I wound up with a lot of home phone numbers." After presenting the Roosevelt High Latin Jazz Band at Jazz festivals, other directors wanted to know how to obtain the same material, thus was the beginning of Three-Two Music Publishing.
As a music educator, Steve's high school ensembles have performed for various conferences and colleges throughout the state of California; such as NAJE (IAJE), CMEA, FMCMEA, and many others. In 1985 his group traveled to Mexico City where they performed at the home of the famous Mexican comedian/actor Mario Moreno (Cantinflas). The following year they performed in New York during the Statue of Liberty re-dedication. His ensembles have received awards at jazz festivals such as the Monterey Jazz Festival for high schools in California, the Reno Jazz Festival and the Berkeley Jazz Festival, just to name a few. Along with his Latin jazz, piano and mariachi classes, Steve also teaches classes on how to use Finale, Sebelius, Pro-Tools and Sound Forge music software.
Steve founded the Fresno City College Latin Jazz ensemble which he also taught for ten years. In 1988 Steve created the first official high school mariachi in the country- the Roosevelt High Mariachi. As band director, he hired Patrick Arnold to build steel pans for Roosevelt and created the Roosevelt High Steel Drum Band in 1994. For over ten years, Steve was an active board member and president of Arte Americas, a Mexican Arts museum in Fresno. During his tenure in 1989, he organized the first Latin Jazz Festival in California and featured the Roosevelt and Fresno City College Latin Jazz Ensembles, Rhythm Update, Michael Spiro's group "Ponche", and Pete Escovedo. Other concerts organized by Steve have featured luminaries like Tito Puente, Dave Valentin, Arturo Sandoval, Eddie Palmieri, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Ray Santos, Orestes Vilato, Machete Ensemble, Rebeca Mauleón, and many others.
Steve and his wife Sofia have two sons, Robert and Adan. Steve will retire as a music educator in 2012 but will turn his full attention to Three-Two Music Publishing as well as continuing to promote Latin Jazz concerts.
