Featured Professor: Dr. Jones
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Jones to hear his story as a musicologist and Honors professor. Dr. Jones is retiring from teaching, and says “The Honors Program is a very special part of CU. It is my hope that it will continue to be a welcoming, engaging, and supportive community for undergraduates wanting the most from their educational experience.” The Honors Program wishes him the best!
Tell us some background on yourself. Specifically, where does your interest in music come from?
My mother always had a strong interest in music, and it was always present around our family’s house. Also, their house was in the SF Bay Area, and during the 1960s-early 1970s when I was growing up this was a very culturally active place, so music was always around on a larger scale as well. Inspired by Jerry Garcia’s banjo playing in the group, Old and in the Way, I started playing banjo as a senior in high school, what I would call my first venture into music that spoke to me personally.
When I first started college (at UC Berkeley), I basically had no internal sense of direction in school, trying various STEM majors. I had also become interested in the pedal steel guitar, and bought one while a freshman at Berkeley. I spent more time practicing that instrument in my dorm room (much to my roommate’s delight) than I did studying for classes.
After floundering for a year and a half at Berkeley, I dropped out. After some treading water (a euphemism, for sure) for a year or so, my mother mailed me a newspaper clipping about a very small, storefront music school (Blue Bear Waltzes, which still exists) across the bay in San Francisco, encouraging me to try music seriously as a direction. From that point forward, it’s been non-stop. After a stint at Blue Bear, I was invited to join a forming band, the Norton Buffalo Stampede, who in 1977-1978 toured, opening for Steve Miller on his Fly Like an Eagle tours.
Seeing road life as something I wasn’t interested in in the long run, I then returned to college, this time as a music major, at Sonoma State University, then went on to graduate school at CU, completing my PhD in 1991. I’ve been teaching ever since, and I still play the pedal steel (check out: StandardDeviationsJazz.com) Thanks, mom!
What topics do you discuss in your two honors courses this semester: Music in American Culture and World Musics?
While my PhD is in traditional western musicology, perhaps because I grew up playing popular music rather than classical, I have gravitated toward the perspectives of ethnomusicology, which studies how everyday people use music as a meaningful part of their lives. I approach all my courses through this “bottom up” cultural perspective, shifting the immediate musicultural focus for different classes.
So in the above classes, we study American culture, its various sub-cultures and historical phases, in hopes of understanding how American identity, perspectives and values have formed and evolved over the years. The World Music class is like a Study Abroad class, looking at various musicultures from around the planet to explore how other cultures create and use their musics meaningfully in their lives.
How long have you taught at CU? What is your favorite memory in the Honors Program?
After my first teaching job at Wichita State University, I’ve been teaching at CU since 1994. I first taught at CU for the Humanities Department, and then joined the Honors Program in 1999. I feel incredibly grateful on a daily basis to teach for the Honors Program, as I get to work with small classes and accomplished and self-motivated students. What could be better?
My other big involvement at CU has been with the CU LEAD Alliance, a campus-wide program which works “to promote inclusive excellence” at CU. While it’s always rewarding to support all students’ personal growth and success, some of my most gratifying moments at CU have occurred when Honors LEAD students have persisted, overcoming personal struggles and systemic biases, and graduated with Latin Honors.
What are you most looking forward to/what are your plans post-retirement?
Certainly I will continue studying music, as a musician and as a musicologist; I doubt I’ll ever retire from that. I also look forward to more world travel, learning more about the world and its various cultures. Finally, much of the enjoyment of teaching for me has been the feeling of “being of service” to students, helping them identify and pursue their own paths. While I don’t have specific targets identified as yet, I plan on finding other realms to “be of service” to local people and institutions.
You must be logged in to post a comment.