Eddie Palmieri photo by Juan Cruz
February 19-22
Moscow, Idaho
For 47 years at the University of Idaho, the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival has brought jazz masters and elementary, junior high, high school and college students together. The first University of Idaho Jazz Festival took place in 1967, with a dozen student groups and one guest artist. The festival continued to grow from there – erupting onto the national stage in 1981, when students and spectators packed in to hear Ella Fitzgerald.
In 1984, Lionel Hampton, inspired by the enthusiasm of the students, pledged his support to the festival.
Five hours east of Seattle and just eight miles east of Pullman, Wash., the town of Moscow, Idaho, home to the University of Idaho, transforms each February into one of the warmest locales for jazz, under the artistic direction of renowned bassist, arranger, composer and jazz educator John Clayton.
The world’s largest educational jazz festival, with nearly 5,000 student participants each year, four days of inspired jazz performances by students, emerging artists and masters – including Benny Golson, Terrell Stafford, Eddie Palmieri, Sheila Jordan, Geoffrey Keezer, Grace Kelly – feature alongside workshops and clinics. Here are a handful of the incredible evening concerts:
Grace Kelly photo courtesy of the artist
Benny Golson, Ken Peplowski, Grace Kelly and All Stars
Wednesday, February 19, 8pm
Student Union Ballroom, Main Campus
NEA Jazz Master Benny Golson, Ken Peplowski, and Grace Kelly perform with the All-Star Quartet featuring Josh Nelson, Shawn Conley, Bruce Forman and Kevin Kanner and the Lionel Hampton School of Music Jazz Band 1.
A multitalented and internationally famous jazz legend – composer, arranger, lyricist, producer and tenor saxophonist Benny Golson was born in Philadelphia, PA. Raised with an impeccable musical pedigree, Golson has played in the bands of Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Earl Bostic and Art Blakey. He’s contributed some of the hippest original tunes to the standard repertoire, still performing them with great aplomb and taste – “Killer Joe,” “I Remember Clifford,” “Along Came Betty.” Golson has absolute mastery of the jazz medium, yet his television and commercial credits are exemplary. Honored with doctorates from William Paterson College and from the Berklee School of Music, Golson is passionate about teaching jazz to young and old alike.
By the time Ken Peplowski was in his early teens, he was experimenting with jazz by playing in the school “stage” bands, and also by jamming with many of the local jazz musicians. After a year of college, Peplowski joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra under the direction of Buddy Morrow. Peplowski met Sonny Stitt while on the road with the Dorsey band, and studied with him. In 1980, he moved to New York City, soon playing in settings from Dixieland to avant-garde jazz. He’s since performed in small clubs, the Hollywood Bowl, Las Vegas, the Newport Jazz Festival, pops concerts, European festivals and clubs, or at home in NYC, doing everything from playing on the soundtracks to Woody Allen movies to guest soloing on records. Peplowski has collaborated with Mel Torme, Leon Redbone, Charlie Byrd, Peggy Lee, George Shearing, Madonna, Hank Jones, Dave Frishberg, Rosemary Clooney, Tom Harrell, James Moody, Cedar Walton, Houston Person, Steve Allen, Bill Charlap, Woody Allen, Marianne Faithfull, Isaac Delgado and Erich Kunzel. Peplowski also does many workshops for students of all ages. Peplowski is the current musical director of the Oregon Festival of American Music (OFAM).
Twenty-something wunderkind Grace Kelly elicits marvel from all who encounter her. A singer, saxophonist, composer, lyricist, arranger, producer and educator, Kelly lists astounding accomplishments in the world of jazz. She has received the ASCAP Foundation’s Young Jazz Composers Award in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2013 and was listed in the 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 Downbeat Critics Poll as one of the Alto Saxophone Rising Stars, the youngest artist ever to be named to the music poll. Kelly has performed and recorded with Dave Brubeck, Wynton Marsalis, Phil Woods, Harry Connick Jr., Jamie Cullum, Frank Morgan, Esperanza Spalding, Toots Thielemans, Hank Jones, Adam Rogers, Rufus Reid, Kenny Barron, Dianne Reeves, Ann Hampton Callaway, Cedar Walton, James Cotton, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Terri Lynn Carrington among others. An accomplished young star at home on the bandstand.
Ken Peplowski/Terell Stafford Septet
Thursday, February 20, 8:30pm
Student Union Ballroom, Main Campus
Terell Stafford has been hailed as “one of the great players of our time” by piano legend McCoy Tyner. Known for being a gifted and versatile player with a voice all his own, Stafford combines lyricism and a deep love of melody with a spirited, adventurous edge. This uniquely expressive, well-defined musical talent allows Stafford the ability to dance in and around the rich trumpet tradition of his predecessors while making his own inroads.
Since the mid-1990s, Stafford has performed with groups such as Benny Golson’s Sextet, McCoy Tyner’s Sextet, the Kenny Barron Sextet, the Frank Wess Quintet, the Jimmy Heath Big Band, the Clayton Brothers Quintet, and the Jon Faddis Orchestra. Currently, he is a member of the Grammy winning Vanguard Jazz Orchestra as well as drummer Matt Wilson’s Arts and Crafts group.
An educator as well as a performer, Stafford currently holds the positions of Director of Jazz Studies and Chair of Instrumental Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia and is a clinician for the prestigious Vail Foundation in Colorado and Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington Program. He has also served as a member of the faculty for the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies in New York. Stafford is also a board member of the Jazz Education Network.
The Yellow Jackets photo by Marc Vanocur
Groove for Thought / Rene Marie / The Yellow Jackets
Friday, February 21, 8pm
ASUI Kibbie Dome presented by Alaska Airlines
The seven singers of Groove for Thought have been blowing audiences away for over ten years. Performing classic tunes in a jazz style unlike anything you’ve ever heard, the group combines the swinging style of The Manhattan Transfer with the smooth sounds of Take 6. Groove for Thought is proud to announce the release of their latest full length album, Inspired.
René Marie, the award-winning singer whose style incorporates elements of jazz, soul, blues and gospel, has quickly become a heroine to many; a woman of great strength, exuding stamina and compassion, she often explains how finding her voice and self through singing gave her the courage to leave an abusive marriage.
A Rise in the Road, the Yellow Jackets’ second Mack Avenue Records offering, is indeed an appropriate title for a time-honored jazz ensemble that has never been fearful of facing newer musical horizons, not to mention the myriad challenges of life itself.
Lionel Hampton Youth Jazz Orchestra w/ special guests Jason Marsalis, NEA Jazz Master Benny Golson and Grace Kelly / NEA Jazz Master Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Septet
Saturday, February 22, 8:30pm
ASUI Kibbie Activity Center
By age six, not only had Jason Marsalis gotten his first real drum set, but he was also taking lessons from the legendary New Orleans drummer James Black. At age seven, he was sitting in with his father’s jazz group, as well as playing with his trombonist brother Delfeayo. Marsalis was progressing so rapidly as a drummer that in 1984 his father started using him consistently on engagements.
Eddie Palmieri, known for his charismatic power and bold innovative drive, has a musical career that spans over 50 years as a bandleader of salsa and Latin jazz orchestras. With a discography that includes 36 titles, Palmieri has been awarded nine Grammy Awards.
A slam dunk finale concert in which students showcase with jazz masters and the Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Septet takes it home.
Tickets for evening concerts range from $20 to $45. For ticket info, directions, and information about performance clinics and classes, visit www.uidaho.edu/jazzfest.
