On the morning of April 14, we were saddened to learn of the overnight passing of a longtime, integral, and well-loved member of Albuquerque’s musical community, reedman and educator Bob Gusch. Bob played everything from Brazilian choros to straight-ahead jazz and was always up to learn something new. He loved playing music for people, and the feeling was returned. His light will be missed. We send our condolences to Bob’s family, friends, and colleagues.

Below, to introduce him to those who didn’t know him and to enliven the memories of those who did, I’ve posted a profile of Bob that I wrote for Albuquerque The Magazine back in 2018. A memorial will be held on Saturday, May 13, from 12:30 to 3:00 p.m., at Holiday Dance Studio, 5200 Eubank Blvd.

A Man for All Genres
About 16 years ago, guitarist Dan Golden approached multi-instrumentalist Bob Gusch and asked him, “Do you want to play in a choro band?” “Sure,” said Gusch. “What’s a choro?”

All that mattered to Gusch was that it was music—a lively, syncopated Brazilian genre with roots in the late 19th century—and that it provided an opportunity to play with a simpático musician. Even better, it required him to pull his clarinet out of the closet and set his saxophones aside for a while. The band, Saudade, which started as a duo, has evolved over the years into a quintet—with Debo Orlofsky (vocals), Lisa Lopez, (piano) Jefferson Voorhees (drums), and Micky Patten (bass)—that plays a wider Brazilian jazz repertoire and is still going strong.

Saudade is just one of several bands that the omnivorous Gusch plays in and for which he also does the bookings. There is the New Orleans trad jazz combo Flambeaux (with Wayne Shrubsall on banjo, Micah Hood on trombone, and Mark Weaver on tuba); the swinging Bobcats (with Dan Dowling on guitar and John Griffin on bass); and Uniquity, a duo with Lisa Lopez, which features jazzy arrangements of pop tunes, Latin standards, and more.

A native of New Castle, Pennsylvania, Gusch collected his musical credentials as a clarinet major at the Dana School of Music in Ohio. There, he also met his wife, Elene, an Albuquerque native, who graduated with a degree in classical guitar performance. After graduation, the couple settled in Warren, Ohio, where Gusch found work as a band director, and he and Elene played out as a duo.

The recession of the early ’80s hit Ohio hard, and the musical couple looked to relocate. Armed with a map of the city’s music stores, they paid a visit to Albuquerque to check out the possibilities and were offered jobs at Farley’s Music. They moved to the city in 1984. Gusch taught privately and soon began a 27-year teaching career at Albuquerque Public Schools. “I retired about five years ago,” he says, “mainly to play more music, and that’s what I’m doing. I’m playing now more than ever.”

Not that he wasn’t playing a lot previously. Gusch was a member of the Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra for 12 years, and he also played in the Phil Link Orchestra, the Orlie Saavedra Big Band, and the Outpost Jazz Repertory Orchestra. Because the modern jazz repertoire calls for soprano sax rather than clarinet, Gusch carved out a place for himself as a saxophonist in these aggregations, primarily on baritone sax, though he also plays alto and tenor, not to mention flute. These days, however, he’s the go-to clarinet player in town.

With more free time as a retiree, Gusch is “threatening” to put together an ensemble to play choros exclusively, and he is also focusing on producing his first album, most likely with the Bobcats. It will feature some original compositions and will likely include a reworking of his first composition, “Where Am I Going?,” written for the Outpost orchestra. “I did not take a whole lot of composition in college, and when I started writing it, I had no clue of where I was going,” he says by way of explaining the title. He got somewhere, though, with the piece being recorded and getting radio play.

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© 2023 Mel Minter