Wilde Lake High School senior Eliza Fishbein describes herself as "excited" and "giddy" about the school jazz band's scheduled performances this weekend with renowned trombonist Slide Hampton. "It's just so cool that no matter what level you're playing at, [jazz musicians] are willing to encourage you," she said.
Hampton, who has made music with some of the best-known names in jazz -- including Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Maynard Ferguson and others -- seems genuinely enthusiastic about his weekend collaborators, as well.
"One thing you can usually count on from young musicians is they will have plenty of energy," Hampton said by phone from his New Jersey home. "That makes up for their inexperience. I was young once, and I remember how it was. My claim to fame was that I had energy."
Hampton will be in Columbia tomorrow and Sunday for two concerts that will include a set by the jazz band, a set with Hampton backed up by local professionals and one song with Hampton and the students.
Money raised by the concerts will support the school's music program.
This is the third year the Wilde Lake High School band has played with a well-known professional. The events have been arranged by the Band Boosters under the guidance of Jill Lapides, who has made connections in the jazz community while her sons, Alex Brown and Zach Brown, have pursued their interest in the music.
Past performances with Latin flutist Dave Valentine and Canadian musicians Jane Bunnett and her husband, Larry Cramer, proved to be popular with audiences and with the young musicians.
"It is an opportunity for our teenaged kids to be able to see, hear and perform with some of these just amazing jazz legends," said Lew Dutrow, the band director. "They're all just pumped up."
According to his official biography, Hampton started his career touring the Midwest with his family's band. (They are the ones who gave young Locksley Wellington Hampton his instrument and the nickname "Slide.")
As an adult, he played with a number of well-known jazz artists and led his own small groups. He lived and played in Europe for nearly a decade before returning to the United States in 1977 and has taught master classes at numerous universities.
The two-time Grammy winner was named musical director of the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band in 2004, and he continues to tour with a group of Brazilian musicians with whom he recorded a compact disc of compositions by Antonio Carlos Jobim.
