Pianist Bill Dobbins is a professor of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media at the Eastman School of Music. He has been the recipient of jazz composition grants from the Ohio Arts Council as well as the National Endowment for the Arts. Dobbins was instrumental in designing the graduate and undergraduate curricula for Eastman’s jazz studies program, and many of his students have become successful recording artists, having been heard in the big bands of Maynard Ferguson, Chuck Mangione, Buddy Rich,...