Stephen Zirkel

1957 - 2024

Stephen Murray Zirkel slipped peacefully into the hereafter the night of August 28th, 2024 after a brief illness, leaving family and friends heartbroken while grateful for the laughter and memorable music he gave us all over the years.

Steve was born in McAllen, Texas on February 11th, 1957, to Clifford H. and Sue Joe Northington Zirkel. He grew up in a household where music-swing for his parents, folk, and rock'n'roll for his older siblings--was a constant refrain. Besides recordings, Steve would hear his mother playing piano, his father saxophone, and siblings practicing trumpet or trombone. Steve was picking out melodies on the piano as a 4-year-old.

Steve moved to Austin in 1968, and entering high school joined the Austin High School band. He joined the Austin High jazz ensemble, and as a senior Steve was named the best musician at the Texas High School Jazz Competition, and his ensemble took first place. At age 14 he started playing gigs with Mitch Watkins, a long-time fixture on the Austin jazz scene. He joined the Nash Hernandez Orchestra while still in high school, and after a semester at University of Texas studying music, he joined Austin band Little Joe and La Familia, touring Texas, the Southwest, and southern California. These experiences in Latin music led to his lifelong passion for salsa, cumbia, and other varieties of Latin music. Steve continued playing trumpet throughout his career but also became a virtuoso on the bass guitar. He also played keyboards, drums, and acoustic guitar. He could play trumpet and bass or trumpet and keyboards at the same time without missing a note. Steve became a fixture on the Monday Night Jazz scene at the Elephant Room. He was an original member of Beto and the Fairlanes and started a collaboration with jazz violinist and Strings Attached founder Will Taylor in 1989 that continued through Steve's last performance in December 2023. They performed across the USA and western Canada, and countless concerts in Austin.

He performed on his various instruments with many other Austin Bands, with styles ranging from country to rock and roll and jazz. But Latin music remained his passion and when he joined The Brew his influence transformed them from a blues-jazz fusion band into a salsa band.

In the late 1980s, Steve joined Leonard Cohen's touring band, traveling across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Later he spent a couple of weeks at Cohen's home in LA writing charts for his songbook. He played on over 50 record albums, producing more than half of them, wrote charts for multiple bands, and gave music lessons to numerous students. Steve enjoyed playing piano for the Austin Sing Club and putting together bands for weddings, usually ending the night with his boisterous vocal on James Brown's "I Feel Good".

Steve was a regular at Barton Springs, swimming and enjoying the scenery. He also enjoyed taking his beloved dog Beau to Barking Springs. He earned his pilot's license in 1987 and flew with bandmates to several gigs in Texas and surrounding states. He enjoyed taking friends on scenic flights above Austin and was thrilled to fly over the Grand Canyon and around Arizona.

Steve is survived by his longtime partner in life and love Carla Gregson, and her children and grandchildren (who called Steve "Grandpa Stove" and "Uncle Teve"), his brother Kip Zirkel and wife Ann of North Carolina, brother Bobby Zirkel and wife Jenny of Austin, and sister Rachel Trudell and husband Terry of Austin, five nieces and nephews, and four grand-nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to Health Alliance for Austin Musicians or Save Our Springs.

A celebration of Steve's life and music will be held in October. We are comforted by the knowledge that Steve is out yonder somewhere pursuing his next great adventure.