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, California. He quickly found that the resources for authentic Latin jazz 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 musician’s union and ask for a phone number and get it. I wound up with a lot of home phone numbers.” After building a modest library of authentic Latin jazz material, Steve decided to start Three-Two Music Publishing. Steve also founded the Fresno City College Latin Jazz ensemble in the early 1990’s.

As a music educator, Steve’s high school ensembles performed for various conferences and colleges in and out of the state of California. His groups have performed for NAJE (IAJE), CMEA, FMCMEA, and many others educational conferences. 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 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, to name a few. Steve also started the first high school mariachi as part of the regular music curriculum at Roosevelt High School in 1989.

When he became 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, featuring the Roosevelt and Fresno City College Latin Jazz Ensembles, local group Rhythm Update, Michael Spiro’s group “Ponche”, and Pete Escovedo. Other concerts organized by Steve have featured luminaries such as Tito Puente, Dave Valentin, Arturo Sandoval, Eddie Palmieri, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Ray Santos, Orestes Vilato, Machete Ensemble, Rebeca Mauleón, and many others.

Steve is married to Sofia and has two sons, Robert and Adan.