Rick Helzer and Trio Expression

Rick is the founder of the group and is a retired professor of music who was the Associate Director of Jazz Studies at San Diego State University in the School of Music and Dance for twenty-seven years. He grew up in Fresno from the age of fourteen. In that time, he developed many important musical relationships. Two of the most special individuals are drummer Gary Newmark, a dear friend of fifty-seven years, and bassist John Lauffenburger, a dear friend of nearly fifty years. Those friendships are the foundation of Trio Expression. They are all over the music that we perform, as we are continually learning and growing as a creative unit. The improvisational interactions that occur when the trio performs arise from the creative trust based on our longstanding friendships.The trio’s repertoire includes numerous original compositions. Additionally, the trio’s repertoire includes classic jazz repertoire and some of the “standards” of popular music that came from the fertile periods of 1930s through the mid 1950s. And these portions of the repertoire are arranged and conceived with the trio’s unique conceptions. More recently the group has been hosting a successful jazz jam session at Tap&Cellar in Fresno for over two and a half years. We have also done numerous performances and lectures for JazzFresno’s Jazz at the Library series since 2018.