Art & Life with Jackson Fink

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jackson Fink.

Jackson, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I started taking classical piano lessons at the age of 5 from a music teacher across my street by the name of Beth Christensen. As I entered 5th grade, I picked up the alto sax when I began band. In 6th grade I moved up to tenor sax, then I finally found my place on bari sax in 7th grade. During this year of school, I also started playing piano in the school jazz band. I played piano in the school jazz band all the way up through my sophomore year. At the end of my freshman year, I had started jazz piano lessons with a well-known teacher and local artist, Raul Yanez, and I still take lessons with him to this day. I quit taking classical piano lessons the year after because of my burning interest in jazz. My sophomore year was also my first year playing bari sax in a jazz band which fueled my love for playing bari sax. Last year, I joined The Young Sounds of Arizona under the direction of GCU jazz director Andrew Gross, which is an out of school jazz band for kids 12-19 that meets in Phoenix. I started out playing bari sax in one of their bands but am now playing both piano and bari in multiple bands of that this group offers.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I have a lot of variations of music that I like to create and perform. I really enjoy taking jazz standards and even video game music and turning them into my own arrangements in which I film/record myself playing each part of the arrangement. I find it useful as well as fun to transcribe and memorize solos of modern and legendary jazz artists in order to increase my vocabulary when improvising on the same or similar chord changes. What I try to do as a musician is use the connection between video games and music to bring more of my generation to listen to jazz. Video game music isn’t my only specialty when it comes to jazz, but I try to take after Carlos Eiene (insaneintherainmusic) and Charlie Rosen (The 8-Bit Big Band) when it comes to bringing new people into the jazz scene.

How do you think about success, as an artist, and what do quality do you feel is most helpful?
For me, I would have to say there are two components to at first having success on your instrument. Half of it is having the right gear (good quality saxophone, reeds, mouthpiece), and the other half of it is skill and knowledge of what you’re doing. To obtain this second half, you need to put in the hours of practicing and having experience playing with other people and in public. Once you find success at playing your instrument, you need to find success in becoming noticed and making a living for yourself doing what you love. This is the hard part, but those that market themselves and are outgoing can accomplish this within a matter of years, even months.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I have an Instagram page “@jack.fink.jazz”, a YouTube account “Jack Fink Jazz”, and a Facebook page “Jack Fink Jazz”. People can support musicians like me by following the pages or sharing the posts. Another way to support is by coming out to concerts that I announce on my page or when I perform with the Young Sounds of Arizona that you can keep up with on their Facebook page “Young Sounds of Arizona”.

Contact Info:

• Email: jackdfink@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/jack.fink.jazz
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jack.fink.jazz/
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzgHExYSZNuuHjiDWeFzFeQ

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