Trumpet player at home in jazz and classical worlds

Josh Rzepka is a musician who doesn't believe in limits.

He majored in both classical trumpet and jazz performance at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and he's continuing that diversity in his recording career.

Rzepka's first CD is the jazz-oriented ''Midwest Coast,'' but he's already making plans to record a classical disc of baroque concertos before the end of the year. Jazz won out mainly because of logistics.

''When I added up the musicians, the cover design, the liner notes, the production, with the jazz album there's about a dozen people involved,'' the Akron native said during a telephone interview. ''With the classical one, it's at least 30. It's just a much bigger project.''

He also doesn't limit himself to the traditional jazz repertoire. While cover songs are featured in his live set, ''Midwest Coast'' features 10 Rzepka originals.

''Putting my first disc out there, I wanted to be able to give something that they could see was uniquely mine, more so than just covering standards,'' Rzepka said.

Rzepka wrote about two dozen songs for consideration and decision on which ones to record came down to a combination of which tracks worked best together on the record and the musicians he has working with him in the studio Jackie Warren, piano; Peter Dominguez, bass; and Ron Godale, drums.

Rzepka doesn't even limit himself to one instrument. He plays both the trumpet and flugelhorn on ''Midwest Coast,'' and he said he does all of his songwriting on the piano.

Not limiting himself to either style makes him better at both, Rzepka believes.

''The main focus in classical is developing a good sound,'' he said. ''I'm always striving to improve, and I'm proud of the sound I can achieve Just to command the horn better (classical helps). Playing jazz and soloing, there's just less roadblocks in your way. When you hear something in your mind, you don't have to think, 'What do I have to do physically to get that sound?'''

''Jazz helping the classical is also a really big thing. It gives you extra types of phrasing and expression with music that wouldn't be natural with just a classical player.''

One of the musicians who influenced Rzepka is Sean Jones, the Warren native who is lead trumpet in the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and an accomplished recording artist. When Rzepka was in high school, he used to go watch Jones play every week in Cleveland, first at the Bop Stop with the Cleveland Jazz Unit and later at the Robin's Nest, where Jones used to play every Wednesday. On one of his first visits to the Robin's Nest, Jones called Rzepka and some of his friends from the Tri-C All-Star Band on stage to jam.

''I used to go to those sessions every week,'' Rzepka said. ''I have mini discs I taped of Sean playing his a- off. I used to listen to him and try to steal his licks. He was a big influence for me when I was just starting to get into jazz.''

Next week Rzepka leaves the Midwest Coast for Boston, to complete the second year of his master's program at Boston University. Before he leaves, he'll play a going-away concert at Musica in Akron, which will be filmed by Time Warner Cable for a segment on its monthly program ''Arts Quest,'' which airs on channel 23 for Time Warner subscribers.

While he's going away for school, Rzepka doesn't plan to leave northeast Ohio for good, at least not anytime soon.

''There's an openness and friendliness among the musicians in Northeast Ohio,'' he said. ''Cleveland doesn't have a thousand new music students every year competing for jobs. There isn't that wall built up that a lot of people in Boston have. In Cleveland the musicians are very supportive of each other and very open. They invite you to their gigs and invite you to sit in with them.

''And the audiences in Cleveland are great. If you want to make a sports parallel, we have very loyal people here, great fans who come out consistently.''