DENTON (UNT), Texas ¾  Lynn Seaton, associate professor of jazz bass at the University of North Texas College of Music, will be honored as Jazz Artist of the Year by the Sammons Center for the Arts, a nonprofit corporation in Dallas, in the center’s annual meeting Sept. 17 (Wednesday) in Dallas.

The award honors local artists who have greatly contributed to the center’s jazz program, said Joanna St. Angelo, executive director of the Sammons Center.

 “Lynn has been participating for many years now, in terms of playing with other groups and headlining his own group from time to time,” St. Angelo said. “He is a great mentor to young jazz artists both at UNT and in the greater jazz community.”

Seaton, who began playing bass at age 9, served as the house bassist at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club in Cincinnati from 1980 until 1984. In 1981, he earned a Jazz Studies Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to study with renowned bassist Rufus Reid. He has performed with such well-known groups and artists as Woody Herman and the Young Thundering Herd, the Count Basie Orchestra, Tony Bennett, George Shearing, Monty Alexander and the Jeff Hamilton Trio.

In addition, he has worked with Bob Dorough, Herb Ellis, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and Mel Torme, among other famed musicians. Seaton has performed on more than 100 recordings, including one that earned a Grammy and two that were nominated for Grammys. He has taught at the College Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Long Island University, State University of New York at New Paltz and William Paterson College in New Jersey. He joined UNT in 1998.

The Sammons Center is a multi-purpose arts center in the historic Turtle Creek Pump Station used by artists for rehearsals, workshops and conferences. In 2006, the Sammons Center gave the Jazz Artist of the Year Award to another UNT faculty member — Neil Slater, who recently retired as the UNT One O’Clock Lab Band director. For information about the center, visit http://www.sammonsartcenter.org/. Seaton can be reached at (940) 369-7639 or lynn.seaton@unt.edu, or visit http://www.lynnseaton.com/. 

The University of North Texas is a student-centered public research university and the flagship of the UNT System. One of Texas' largest universities, UNT offers 99 bachelor's, 104 master's and 49 doctoral degree programs, many nationally and internationally recognized. UNT's more than 34,000 students Discover the power of ideas.