Jayn Pettingill

Jayn Pettingill is a San Francisco native who has been playing saxophone professionally for 30 years. Her early studies with Frank Morgan, Victor Morosco and Anthony Braxton have influenced her music deeply. Her own projects include Verb, a quartet composed of alto sax, trombone, bass and drums, and Kaijuscope, a twelve-piece ensemble which reimagines the music of Akira Ifukube through Jayn's compositions and arrangements.

 Jayn has recorded and performed with pianist Art Lande; The Graham Connah Ensemble; and toured the country with the West African influenced band Pele Juju. She has also shared the stage with a variety of artists, ranging from Senegalese singer and guitarist Baba Mal, to Steve Allen, Louie Bellson and Joan Rivers.

Jazz and its related genres have been a lifelong passion for Jayn since the moment she picked up her saxophone. Growing up listening to her mother's big band record collection, she became keenly acquainted with the sound of Marshall Royal, lead altoist for Count Basie. Royal became a hero and role model to her for "all things" alto. She received a BA in music from Mills College and later, a MM in Jazz Pedagogy and Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2002: Jayn's thesis, Art Lande's Pedagogy for Improvisation provided the culminating part of this degree. She also has a MLIS in Library Sciences.

In 2011 Jayn became an intern for the Jazz with Bob Parlocha radio program. Working with Bob for four years gave Jayn a different view on the "making of music"; witnessing the vast breadth and depth of the music through working with and observing Bob spin out six hours of programming daily, has influenced her as deeply as her saxophone studies with Frank Morgan and Anthony Braxton did.

Catch Jayn, with her faithful co-host Duke on A Morning Cup of Jazz every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 6-10am