Sean Jones’ career as a musician has taken him to New York City to play with Wynton Marsalis’ orchestra and to Pittsburgh to lead the city’s jazz orchestra. Jones has also held teaching positions at Berklee College of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Johns Hopkins University, where he currently serves as the Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair in Jazz Studies.
Jones’ newest role though, will bring the trumpeter and Warren, Ohio, native back to his home state to serve as the 2024-2025 visiting artist-in-residence for the University of Akron School of Music.
Theron Brown and Chris Coles, co-chairs of the jazz studies program at the university’s School of Music, decided to bring back the artist-in-residence position after it sat vacant for years. Coles said the role will be a combination of teaching, mentoring and outreach.
“Whenever you have a world class musician and pedagogue (teacher) present, you want to try to give them as many opportunities as you can to break bread with the students,” Coles said.
As the visiting artist-in-residence, Jones, 46, plans to travel to the university several times each semester. His first visit slated for next week — to coincide with the annual Rubber City Jazz and Blues Festival. Through his role, Jones said he wants to show music students that there are many paths to a music career. He attributes his education at state schools — Jones is a graduate of Youngstown State University and Rutgers University — for broadening his worldview.
“Maybe they’re afraid to go to New York right away like I was,” he said. “Maybe they’re afraid to go to Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, like I was. I needed to be at home. I needed to be in Warren, Ohio, because this [points to head] was not together yet, and it still in some ways isn’t that together.”
He continued, “But at least I knew enough to not go right away to those larger markets, and I was able to hone my pedagogical skills. I was able to learn how to interface with the community and the public in a varied fashion.”
A passion for teaching strikes at a young age
Jones grew up singing in the church choir; he picked up the trumpet at age 10. Decades later, he has recorded eight albums and performed with a host of well-known musicians, including jazz singer Nancy Wilson, saxophonist Joe Lovano and composer and bandleader Gerald Wilson.
The teaching bug bit Jones early on. In high school, he taught at a local music school in Champion, Ohio. While there, he met a 5-year-old whose parents were adamant that their child learn the trumpet. The only problem was, the kid couldn’t make a sound on his instrument.
“When I figured out how to get the kid to form an embouchure and make a sound, those eyes right there, they just blossomed like this,” Jones said, referring to the position of a person’s mouth when playing a wind or brass instrument. “And that right there, I saw the power of teaching, because those eyes presented possibility. Those eyes presented a way forward that this kid didn’t even know existed.”
He added, “Those were the same eyes that I had as a 10-year-old.”
Jones began teaching full time in 2004, first at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He joined the faculty of John Hopkins in 2018. While enrollment in John Hopkins’ jazz studies program has increased, Jones said the program is still “at first base.”
“I’m not going to be happy until students that are admitted into music programs can afford it,” he said, citing the high tuition and cost of living that accompanies some music schools. “We also need to make sure that these folks can make a livable wage upon graduation. They’re not playing $50 gigs. They know how to write grants. They know how to put out an album. They know how to monetize their skills.”
Jones’ commitment to education and his students makes him a perfect fit for the University of Akron, said Brown.
“He’s a voice that is very powerful in the world when it comes to these topics, and to have a giant like this here at the University of Akron, not only being our cheerleader, but a leader, people have to listen to him. They gravitate towards him,” Brown said.
The public will get a chance to hear Jones play Friday, Sept. 6, at the Rubber City Jazz and Blues Festival. Jones will perform with the Bobby Selvaggio Quintet at the downtown branch of the Akron-Summit County Public Library. The show is at 6:15 p.m. and is free to attend.
