Original Jazzman Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival Returns Behind The Baton Of Its Highly Acclaimed 89-Year-Old Leader

The jazz convergence of the year is about to happen in Moscow. The University of Idaho has a 30-year tradition of hosting the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, and the man whose name is on the sign, now 89, will be there running the show every night.

The convergence involves a major massing of jazz pros, students of music and jazzophiles of every ilk. A long list of some of the biggest names in jazz will come together to perform and lead clinics on musical basics and trends in jazz performance and techniques.

More than 12,000 students are expected to attend, as well. Bands come from all over the country, and for the first time from outside North America, to compete at several levels, all of them high. While most of the bands come from the western United States and Canada, the Birmingham Youth Jazz Ensemble raised the money (talk about selling some band candy) to make the trip from Alabama. And the winners of Japan’s biggest collegiate big band competition, Waseda University’s High Society Orchestra, will be flying in from Tokyo.

The students will be sucking up hot tips and, more valuable than anything, watching and listening to the pros perform. I know from experience that this is the kind of thing all these kids will remember forever. And it will light the fire for just a few who will go on to the big time.

The man whose name is synonymous with vibes will be playing every night, Wednesday through Saturday. Lionel Hampton will front a different ensemble each evening of the festival.

Hampton, who was around when jazz was invented, has been playing since the ‘20s. A break on drums and some recording with Louis Armstrong turned into a careermaking stint on vibraphone with Benny Goodman in the first famous racially integrated jazz ensemble. Hampton has fronted his own big bands, worked with the best jazz musicians throughout the century and discovered a few major talents himself.

He has toured the world to acclaim, and has received some of the highest honors offered for a lifetime of achievement. He has received 17 honorary doctorates, the Papal Medal from Pope Paul I, the Gold Medal of Paris, the first ever Lincoln Center Jazz Masters Award, the Kennedy Center Honors Award and, last year, the National Medal of the Arts.

At 89, he has so much energy that he regularly outlasts much younger musicians on the stage. He is thinking about a tour of China. The man is unstoppable.

His entourage is pretty high-powered also. Soloists and clinicians include Diana Krell, nominated for a Grammy for best jazz vocal for “Love Scenes,” Cuban saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera, founder of the Orchestra Cubana de Musica Moderna and Grammy winner for “Havana Jam” and Marian McPartland, the host of “Piano Jazz” on National Public Radio, who also knows everyone who ever played a lick of jazz.

The list continues. For trumpets, there’s Jon Faddis, studio god, Terence Blanchard from New Orleans whose most recent CD “The Heart Speaks” was a Grammy nominee, and Pete and Conte Candoli who, between them, have played for every big band that exists.

Then there’s the Ray Brown Trio and the Kenny Barron Trio. Bill Watrous, who can do impossible things on the trombone and make them look easy and saxophonist Frank Foster, who fronted the Spokane Jazz Orchestra last season and made it look fun. And Lionel Hampton’s New York Big Band plays Saturday night. The list just goes on and on with names that deserve a couple of paragraphs of introduction.

Elementary school through college ensembles compete at more than a dozen sites all over the University of Idaho campus and get to sit in with all of these jazz masters in clinics. Elementary and junior high schools compete on Wednesday, colleges on Thursday, and high school bands compete Saturday. Friday, high school vocal groups get their chance. Top ensembles from each day perform on afternoon concerts at which an overall winner is selected.

Wednesday evening’s concert begins at 7 and features the Kenny Barron trio and 18 famous sidemen.

Thursday’s concert is also at 7 and includes vocalist Abbey Lincoln, Marian McPartland, Terence Blanchard, Super Bass with Ray Brown, John Clayton and Christian McBride, the Kenny Barron Trio, Russell Malone, guitar, and a Billy Marcus “Tribute to Hamp.”

Friday and Saturday, the concerts begin at 8. Friday’s agenda contains vocalist Freddy Cole with a tribute to Nat King Cole, the Ray Brown Trio, the Kenny Barron Trio, Jon Faddis, Bill Watrous, Russell Malone, Frank Foster, as well as sax men Frank Wess and Ron Aprea, trombonist Al Grey and vocalist Ethel Ennis.

On Saturday’s menu is the New York Big Band, Diana Krall, Kenny Barron, Russell Malone, the Candoli boys, and vocalist Angela DeNiro.

This is huge. A major jazz convergence. And all of the concerts feature the man whose name is on the sign: Lionel Hampton.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: The annual University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival runs Wednesday through Feb. 28 at UI in Moscow. Tickets are $18, $20 or $25 and are available by calling (208) 885-7212, or outside of Moscow (888) 8-U-IDAHO.