Pop Star: Sean Jones

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About two in the morning a few years back, Sean Jones was playing horn in his home state of Ohio. Unbeknownst to him, in the audience sat Wes Anderson, alto player in Maestro Marsalis’ Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Liking what he heard, Anderson hoisted his cell phone and called his boss in New York. “Brother Wynton,” he said, “you got to hear this cat.”

Duly impressed by the young man’s chops, Marsalis invited Jones to New York for a musical tęte-a-tęte. The result: the proverbial offer Jones couldn’t refuse, first chair in Marsalis’ own hand-groomed ensemble – playing Marsalis’ own ax.

That’s how Duquesne University music professor Sean Jones got to play trumpet at Lincoln Center.

Growing up in Warren, Ohio, Jones cut his musical teeth singing gospel in church. “The soul, fire, passion all stayed with me,” he says. Presented a choice of musical instruments at age 10, Jones chose trumpet. “Nobody messed with that,” he recalls. “Plus it was hard. I wanted a challenge.”

Taking what seemed like forever to make a passable sound, Jones’ first real note thrilled him. “I remember what it felt like to play that,” he says. “At that moment, I found out who I was.”

When a teacher gave him two Miles Davis releases – Kind of Blue and Amandla – the rest was history. “That was it for me,” he says, “right there in the fifth grade.”

Studying Miles, along with such other notable horn players as Clifford Brown, Fats Navarro, and Freddie Hubbard, Jones practiced – sometimes as much as nine hours a day -- developing his chops, learning classic solos.

Taking music degrees from Youngstown State and Rutgers, Jones also played with such headliners as the Chico O'Farrill Orchestra, Illinois Jacquet Band, Joe Lovano, Jon Faddis, Jimmy Heath, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, and Stevie Wonder, among others. Landing a contract with Mack Avenue as leader of his own sextet, Jones has already recorded four CDs.

For all his performance success, though, “I wanted to be a teacher on a collegiate level,” he says. Sending an e-blast around the country, both qualifications and query, Duquesne bit. Going in as artist-in-residence, a year later Jones went full-time. “It’s a good fit,” he says. “Pittsburgh has become home. This city is about to experience a major artistic transition, and I want to do whatever I can to help propel that forward.”

Not that he’s giving up the bright lights. After a month on the road with Lincoln Center, his Sean Jones Sextet will play Montreal to Monterey, Paris to London, Bonn to Istanbul. “It’s necessary,” says the Robinson Twp resident. “Musicians need to be constantly performing. Different people, different places -- they all have their story. They all put a spin on the music.”

These days, isn’t it all spinning? he’s asked. Isn’t it time to rest? “I don’t feel I’ve arrived,” Jones says. “I feel I must go beyond what people expect, to try constantly to be extraordinary. I never know what I can do until I push the envelope."