From the Moline Dispatch -- March 21, 2003 Music maker By Julie Jensen, Correspondent
Neal Smith of Davenport not only makes wonderful music on the saxophone, he rescues wonderful sounds from the past imprisoned in outmoded recordings.
He discovered how to convert LPs, cassettes, 8-tracks and other recordings to CDs and found such a heavy demand for the service that he launched Vintage Audio Restoration.
"At first, I just started buying the equipment so I could do this for myself," he said. "And I did it for friends and family."
He is the proud owner of his great grandfather's Victrola manufactured in 1907, and he has transferred all the records that came with it to CDs.
Mr. Smith plays in the Josh Duffee Orchestra, and, he said, "As soon as Josh heard I had the set-up, he started buying 78s of the bands he likes to listen to, like Jean Goldkette."
Some people want to transfer recordings of their wedding or the first words of their child to CDs, and for a reasonable additional fee, labels and booklets can be created from their personal memorabilia. Restoration also can reduce unwanted noises on a recording.
If you have music that needs rescuing, call Mr. Smith at (563) 445-6489 for an estimate. Vintage Audio Restoration rates run from $7.50 for up to five minutes to $30 for up to 80 minutes.
Mr. Smith grew up in Princeton, Ill., with an older brother, a younger brother, and a younger sister.
"I wanted to play the violin," he said, "but they didn't have an orchestra, and a friend of my mom's had a sax that wasn't being used, so I started that when I was 9. There weren't a lot of sax players. Everyone wanted to play trumpet and drums. I was a little guy, and that tenor sax was down to my ankles."
It never occurred to him that he might someday make a living by playing music until he was 16 or 17. He said, "Until then, I wanted to be an astronomer. People started paying me compliments, and I thought, 'Maybe I could be good at this.' And I had been playing for 20 years before I picked up a horn other than the tenor sax."
That horn was a soprano sax which he bought from Manny Lopez, and he said, "That was what I used the most when I was with the Kabalas," referring to the local neo-klezmer act that rose to great popularity in the late '90s.
He went to Illinois State University and majored in music performance, which was a mistake, he believes. "What do you do with that degree? If you want to be in a band, do you show that to them?
"I had great grades, and when I was preparing my senior recital, the administration informed me that I must play a classical sax recital. I tried, but the faculty jury didn't like what they heard. They told me to go on studying classical sax, but I left without graduating, and nobody has ever asked to see my diploma."
Mr. Smith teaches saxophone lessons to 35 students ranging in age from 11 to 80 and has a waiting list. He said, "Just one student of mine has majored in music performance. He graduated, got married, and said, 'What do I do now?' "
Mr. Smith had asked that question himself. He said, "It took me a long time to get started. I worked at Music Land in Peoria, moving in with my younger brother, who worked at Caterpillar, and every once in awhile I would quit my job and go on the road -- then get another job.
"I came to Moline in 1987 and have been gradually inching westward."
What brought him to the Quad-Cities? "A woman. That didn't work out, but things turned out all right musically. This is a good area to be based in with so many colleges within a two- or three-hour drive and not far from Chicago, St. Louis, and Minneapolis. Also, it's affordable."
Mr. Smith played with the Kabalas for five years, and he played for a number of Quad City Jazz Festivals with musicians like Louie Bellson, Clark Terry, Buddy DeFranco, Ellis Kell and John Gere.
"Once in awhile I get a call from The Mark," he said. "I played for the Motown 40th Anniversary Legend Tour, and one of my favorite vocalists, Alex Chilton, put a band together. I did six shows with him."
He's now with the Metrolites with Scott Morschhauser, the lead singer from the Kabalas; he still plays with Manny Lopez frequently; and he performs with the Sin City Orchestra, a cover band that plays at the 11th St. Bar & Grill in the Village of East Davenport.
For the past several months he has been rehearsing with the Central Illinois Jazz Orchestra in Peoria. They'll play at the Montreau, Switzerland, Jazz Festival next summer, also performing at Euro Disney in Paris and at other jazz festivals in the French Alps.
"We are determined to have a top-notch band," he says, "so a lot of practicing goes into it. I always like being in bands where I am one of the lesser players. I learn things from listening to other people."
He plans to move from his apartment to a house in Northwest Davenport so he can practice at home.
"If I don't play for a couple of days, I get really moody," he said. "Everybody thinks I am carefree and happy-go-lucky, and it's the music that does that.
"I speak my mind with my horn. If I'm upset when I'm playing, the music gets more intense, organic and truthful. I tell my students that their first priority is saying something to an audience.
"Anything you communicate is abstract. When I play something high energy, somebody may interpret it as rage and somebody else make think it's just enthusiasm. Everybody interprets the language of music differently. You can't just stand up and play the right notes, you have to say something -- give your audience something to identify with."
Copyright 2001, Moline Dispatch Publishing Co.