On Latest EP, Wayne's Nick Stefanacci Continues Evolving His Sound

WAYNE, NJ — After more than two decades touring and performing as a saxophonist, Wayne native Nick Stefanacci is continuing to find new evolutions and avenues for his music.

Patch caught up with the musician, teacher, and philanthropist ahead of the release of his new EP.

“Secrets” comes out May 10, with a special show in Rutherford to celebrate its release – and two other important events.

Stefanacci, a graduate of Wayne Valley High School, describes his latest work as a smooth jazz record with pop elements. He even appears as a vocalist on several tracks. “Secrets” will be his eighth solo record.

“It’s taken a really long time to get here as an artist,” he said.

He has been performing since he was 16 years old, and his parents would drive him to his first gigs – and if it was a school night, they’d wake him up bright and early in the morning.

Never one to fit himself into a box, Stefanacci has shared the stage with an eclectic collection of other musicians: Hip-hop legends DMC (of Run-DMC) and Ja Rule, Motown quartet The Four Tops, jazz artist Cindy Bradley, fellow New Jersey natives Dog Eat Dog, drummer Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, Grammy-winning Colombian rock group Diamante Electrico, and many others.

“My background in studying music and my experience with music is really cross-genre, from every direction you can imagine,” he said. “So all of those elements really come into who I am as an artist.”

Stefanacci is currently the middle school and high school band director for the Ridgefield Park School District in Bergen County. He taught at Wayne Township Public Schools earlier in his career, before taking an opportunity to play and study music in Spain.

He said that embracing these different opportunities throughout his career has continued to help him grow as both an artist and a person - and that he is someone who is never satisfied with the status quo.

”If you're not evolving, then you’re dying,” he said. “How can you make improvements if you’re kind of just settling for what you are?”

Stefanacci said he was inspired by Grammy-winning saxophonist David Sanborn when he was younger, but until now, he has never released an album in the smooth jazz format Sanborn is known for.

“That’s finally coming out in my playing, in my producing, and in my writing,” he said.

But along with one of those early influences come all the people he has worked with, learned from, and even taught – all contributing to Stefanacci’s unique recipe from the “melting pot” of music.

“You take from all your experience…and you try to come up with your own ‘preparation of food.”

Having been given the “amazing blessing” of musical talent, and the opportunity to travel both Europe and North America to play music, Stefanacci said he wanted to find a way to give back.

While he was still working as a full-time musician, Stefanacci founded The Promise Music Festival, to raise money for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The festival has been on pause since the COVID-19 pandemic and Stefanacci said it has been challenging to secure funding - but added that it will come back “when the timing’s right.”

While he continues teaching and planning the festival, Stefanacci is preparing for an album release show this spring.

On May 11, one day after the release of his new EP, he will perform at The Williams Center in Rutherford with special guests Rich Aveo and Cat London. And that show will be a celebration of three things in one, he said — the album release, Mother's Day on Sunday, and his birthday, which is also May 12.

Stefanacci will also be at the Elmwood Park Library on Sunday, Feb. 25 at 2 p.m. for a meet and greet, where he will talk about his life touring and recording and also play several songs.
Learn more about that event here.

And to learn more about Stefanacci and his work, go to www.nickstefanaccimusic.com.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Rich Aveo’s name.