Andy Gray

Assorted ramblings from the world of entertainment:

• Educator and musician Richard Rollo died Sunday.

Rollo, 66, was a longtime member of the W.D. Packard Concert Band and also performed solo in the area. He also taught for 28 years in Warren City Schools, serving as assistant band director at Warren G. Harding High School for 18 years and as director of bands the final two years of his teaching career.

Rollo no doubt made an impact on many of the students he taught, but one of the most famous is jazz trumpet player Sean Jones, a Warren native who has worked with Wynton Marsalis as lead trumpet in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and has released seven solo albums on Mack Avenue Records in addition to recordings with SF Jazz Collective and Cleveland Jazz Orchestra.

Jones turned to social media to talk about the impact Rollo had on his life and career, writing that “Rich accepted nothing but greatness from me.”

He told a story about the tough love Rollo and director of bands Lynn Marlin used to get him to reach his potential.

“In eighth grade, he along with Lynn Marlin made a conscious decision to make me last chair in the trumpet section because my reading was terrible,” Jones wrote. “I was the most technically proficient player and I had ears … but, they KNEW I could be better. Then, they both stayed after school and helped me get it together until I could challenge my way all the way back up to first chair.

“THIS is teaching! When I tell you all that I’ve had the best teachers that money CANT buy, I had them! Which is why I’ve dedicated my life to the craft!”

In addition to his performing career, Jones has continued to teach, currently holding the Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair in Jazz Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute in Baltimore, and previously serving as chair of the brass department at Berklee College of Music and artistic director for the NYO Jazz program of Carnegie Hall.

• Most acts would consider being booked as an opening act at a venue they’d headlined before to be a demotion.

For Youngstown’s Labra Brothers, it’s a dream come true. Then again it’s not every day a band gets to open for its “childhood heroes.”

The band will open for Los Lobos on Aug. 3 at the Music Box Supper Club.

Adrian Labra has talked before about how the East Los Angeles band, which has incorporated its Mexican musical heritage into its rock music since the release of its EP “… And a Time to Dance” in 1983, was an influence on the group.

The August date will mark another milestone for the band, which features brothers Adrian, Cristian, David and Antonio Labra along with Danny Svenson and Matt Hayes. The Music Box show will be the first public gig featuring Victor, the fifth Labra brother. He’ll be a vocalist and percussionist with the band to start but will have a more involved role going forward.

Unfortunately, the Cleveland date already is sold out. However, folks can catch the band for free on Saturday at WaterFire Sharon from 9:30 to 11 p.m.

• Andy Gray is the entertainment editor of Ticket. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com