Sean Jones, the Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair of Jazz Studies interviewed by trumpeter/educator Jeremy Pelt for an episode of the Griot podcast coming out in February:
“The first thing is be able to play your horn. Be able to play in multiple styles and multiple genres if you want to work. Pedagogy is extremely important to me—that’s how I survived living out here before any of the quote-end-quote “better” gigs came along. I made my money playing in wedding bands. That’s how I got through grad school. If I couldn’t play music with wedding bands or classical music with this gig, I would’ve starved.
So be able to do that, show up on time, be cool, try to stay out of controversy. Sit in with big bands—to me, that’s one of the biggest ones. You sit in with a big band, 17 people are going to know you can read, they’re going to know you can solo, you can blend a section—and you’re cool, generally.
That’s my advice—and don’t think it’s going to happen overnight.”