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Sean Dobbins

Sean Dobbins got his start as a sought-after Detroit area jazz sideman at a young age, when he would regularly play with Blue Note artist Louis Smith.

Though still young by jazz standards, Dobbins has amassed an impressive list of playing companions. He has performed/toured/recorded with Johnny Basset, Benny Golson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Frank Morgan, Joey DeFrancesco, George Cables, James "Blood" Ulmer, Paul Finkbeiner, Larry Willis, Rodney Whitaker, Johnny O'Neal, Paul Keller, Tad Weed, Kurt Krahnke, Kelly Broadway, David "Fathead" Newman, Donald Walden, Ramona Collins, Michael Gabriel, and Firefly Jazz Club owner Susan Chastain.

Sean's sound can best be described as hard-driving, solid rhythm with refreshing melodic sensibility. Some of Sean's influences include Art Blakey, Jeff Hamilton, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Ed Thigpen, Sonny Payne, and also Detroit area greats Gerald Cleaver and Pete Siers.

A product of the Ann Arbor Public Schools, Sean has stayed devoted to education throughout his life. Early mentor Louis Smith, an Ann Arbor Public Schools band teacher, impressed the importance of a good education upon Sean at an early age. Sean is known in his community as a band director, drum teacher and positive influence for many.

Sean is no stranger to local headlines; he frequently plays at venues such as the Firefly Club (Ann Arbor), Baker's Keyboard Lounge (Detroit), the Music Hall Jazz Cafe (Detroit), Murphy's Place (Toledo) and Buddy Guy's (Chicago). His recent recordings include "Odyssey" (PKO Records), "Revealing" (Reparation Records), and "Christmas Songs for Jazz Lovers" (PKO Records), to name a few.

Look for Sean live with his new groups: "Dobbins, Krahnke and Weed", "The Modern Jazz Messengers", and also various local and national acts.


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Album Review

Buselli / Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: The Gennett Suite

Read "The Gennett Suite" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


This is where music for mass consumption--recorded music--started, in Richmond, Indiana, in the 1920s, in a piano factory by the railroad tracks in a glacier-carved gorge. Established in 1887, in the beginning Starr Pianos' bread and butter was pianos, but they branched out to selling other instruments and eventually photographs and records--their own records, recorded in the piano factory, taking breaks in the process when a train came by. At first, they called their recording side of the business Starr ...

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Photos

Concerts

May 25 Sat

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Gennett Suite

Patrois Records
2023

buy

Odyssey

PKO Records
2006

buy

Dippermouth Blues

From: The Gennett Suite
By Sean Dobbins

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