Todd Weeks passed his six-month probation on Dec. 4 and joins the permanent staff of Local 802 as the union’s jazz and teaching artists rep.

Weeks is experienced in both areas. As a trumpeter and harmonica player he performed and recorded with several Chicago and New York area bands in the 1980’s and 1990’s. He taught jazz history, intro to music and a course on Shakespeare at Rutgers University (Newark) and at Bard College.

A member of both SAG and Equity, Weeks earned a B.S. in speech from Northwestern University where he also studied acting. From 1986 to 2000, Weeks worked as a professional actor and appeared in a variety of roles in regional theatre, film and television. In 1991 he starred in “Bix: An Interpretation of a Legend,” a film about trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke. In 1999, Weeks wrote, produced and performed in his full-length play “Rain From Out of the Blue,” about the last days of Chet Baker.

In 2004, Weeks earned an M.A. in jazz history and research from Rutgers. He has written articles on jazz for Uptown magazine and the Annual Review of Jazz Studies. His biography “Luck’s In My Corner: The Life and Music of Hot Lips Page,” published by Routledge Press, will be in print in 2008.