Paul Mock

Urbana, Illinois

Dr. Paul Mock DMA is among the first jazz academics to write scholarly literature analyzing the compositional style and guitar playing style of free improvisation innovator Mary Halvorson. Originally part of his doctoral thesis, his analyses of Halvorson's work can be read in Volume 14 No. 1 of the Rutgers Journal of Jazz Studies. As a jazz guitarist, Dr. Mock has frequently performed with members of faculty from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. As part of the UIUC Concert Jazz Band, he has performed with figures such as Carl Allen, Jim Snidero, Brad Dutz, and Kenny Rampton. He has been a gigging guitar player for over a decade in various forms of contemporary Black American music including jazz, funk, hip-hop, soul, neo-soul, R&B, and blues. He has been an educator for five years as a teaching assistant for the UIUC jazz program from 2020 until 2022, a guitar instructor for the non-profit music academy Urbana Community Center for the Arts in Urbana IL since 2023, a guitar instructor for Millikin Community Academy of Arts at Millikin in Decatur IL since 2025, and an adjunct professor of Music Appreciation, Music in America, and guitar at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield IL since 2024. Dr. Mock has been cohosting a jazz jam session in Urbana IL with his fellow UIUC colleague Kurt Reeder since 2021.

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Presentation(s):

• An Analysis of Mary Halvorson's Improvisational and Compositional Style

  Thursday, January 8, 2026
  3:30 PM - 5:30 PM CST