YSU jazz-studies professor earns award for concert

YOUNGSTOWN -- David Morgan, an assistant professor of jazz studies at Youngstown State University, has received the 2003 Award of Achievement from Northern Ohio Live for transcribing and arranging a concert of the music of Frank Zappa for a Cuyahoga Community College JazzFest concert that featured saxophonist Ernie Watts.
The Jack Schantz Jazz Unit, with Morgan as the bassist, performed the concert at the Tri-C Metro Campus in Cleveland.
Morgan, who holds a master's degree of music in music theory and a doctorate of musical arts in composition from the University of Texas at Austin, also has two upcoming premieres.
The first is "Consolation" for alto saxophone and orchestra, which will be performed in South Korea in November. The second is "Fine Lines" for flute and wind ensemble, composed for Katherine Thomas Umble, an assistant professor of flute. She will perform the piece with the YSU Wind Ensemble in December.
In addition, Morgan's article "Superimposition in the Improvisations of Herbie Hancock" was published in the most recent volume of the Annual Review of Jazz Studies.