JACK WILKINS
Jack Wilkins is Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of South Florida School of Music where he is Director of the Jazz Studies program, teaches courses in jazz improvisation, jazz styles and analysis, and jazz history, coordinates the jazz combo program, and teaches applied jazz performance to seniors and graduate jazz studies majors. Formerly Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies and Saxophone at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Mr. Wilkins has held faculty positions at Appalachian State University, the University of North Carolina, and as a graduate teaching assistant at Indiana University. Jack Wilkins is an active performer, leading his own projects, appearing as a guest artist with numerous professional and collegiate jazz bands, and performing as a featured soloist with Chuck Owen and the Jazz Surge big band and the group Common Ground. Jack is Selmer Instrument Company Artist and an active clinician and adjudicator, having appeared at many high school and college jazz festivals in the USA, Canada, Russia and South Africa. During the summers Jack teaches and performs as a member of the faculties of the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops and the Jazzwise Summer Workshops in London. Jack Wilkins publications include the Essential Jazz Etudes series by Mel Bay Publishing, and the software based multimedia textbook, Jazz: The Great American Art Form, by Faulkner Press. Jack Wilkins has three CD's out as a leader, ARTWORK on KochJazz, Ridgelines on ClaveBop Records, his newest CD release, Dear Old Stockholm, on NHV Music. These CD's have received great reviews, and significant radio play on jazz stations around the world. Dear Old Stockholm, released in January 2007, features Wilkins with Swedish trumpeter Jan Allan and other Stockholm based artists. Jack can also be heard on the three critically acclaimed recordings by Chuck Owen and the Jazz Surge big band, The Jazz Surge, Madcap and Here We Are, all on Seabreeze Records. Wilkins' compositions and improvisations are also featured on the well-received Common Ground CD on Improvibes Records.