“Jazz is a combination of extreme elegance and sophistication with extreme carnality,” says Cleveland Jazz Orchestra’s incoming artistic director Sean Jones. “It’s like America. We have those extremes.”
Cleveland audiences will hear how that translates into repertoire
and musical energy as Jones takes leadership of a band he played in as
a 20-year-old trumpeter from Warren. Ten years later, he has several
opportunities — not just in Cleveland — to launch his own
musical ideas into the world. He says he intends to keep the focus on
the music and not to re-invent the wheel — to use his taste and
his connections to build programming.
“If your goal is to get people in the seats, you missed the boat,”
he says. “But if your goal is great music, people will come.”
Jones takes the helm at a time of potential for both, partly because
CJO is moving into what it hopes will be its regular home,
PlayhouseSquare’s newly renovated Hanna Theatre, in December. The venue
solves some challenges of the band’s migratory past. It’s a centrally
located, mid-sized hall. And having a well-stocked bar in the same very
stylish room as the stage can’t help but contribute to Jones’ effort to
build a scene. He hopes its season will eventually feature monthly
performances.
Jones himself is the other part of that potential.
“The band has always been very polished,” he says. “That will
continue. The programming might be a little more collaborative. I will
use my connections. The race issue will be important.”
As a 30-year-old African American, Jones has the chance to connect
with people who haven’t been a big part of CJO — in the audience
or on the stage. In addition to jazz, his taste has been informed by
hip-hop artists like Mos Def, Busta Rhymes, 2Pac and Digable
Planets.
Jones’ introduction to the trumpet came in fifth grade. “My Grandma
said my great-great-grandfather played bugle in the Civil War, so
that’s why I chose the trumpet.”
He credits music teachers for seeing his interest and guiding his
energy. “My teacher gave me two Miles CDs — Amandla and
Kind of Blue,” he says. “That changed my life.”
Since Jones’ first tenure with the CJO, he’s reached the top of the
jazz world, as principal trumpet with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
under the leadership of Wynton Marsalis. His last official gig with the
LCJO is in May 2010. But even after that, Jones will be a very busy
guy. In addition to his day job as professor of trumpet and jazz
studies at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University, he leads his own band. And
he announced last month that he plans to resurrect a Pittsburgh Jazz
Orchestra.
But he’s happy to be spending at least some of his time giving back
to Cleveland and the band he played in as a younger man.
“When you have the opportunity to make a difference in your
community,” he says, “you jump at that.”
This article appears in Nov 18-24, 2009.