University of Idaho Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival

The University of Idaho Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival began in 1967 with a handful of student bands and one guest artist—trumpeter Bud Brisbois—who had performed with Stan Kenton and recorded with a long list of musicians, from Frank Sinatra to The Monkees. A performance by Ella Fitzgerald in 1981 put the festival on the world cultural map, and stars such as Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Stan Getz, Carmen McRae and Wynton Marsalis have subsequently performed at the event. 

Lionel Hampton (1908–2002), the legendary jazz vibraphonist, pianist and bandleader, first played at the festival in 1984. He so enjoyed the experience, he made a donation to the festival that year, and it was the start of a long and fruitful relationship. In 1985, the festival was named for Hampton, and he became its artistic director; the university named its music school after Hampton in 1987. Grammy-winning bassist/composer John Clayton is the current artistic director (he and his son, Grammy-nominated keyboardist Gerald Clayton, will perform October 1 during the university’s Auditorium Chamber Music Series). The festival received a National Medal of Arts in 2007.