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Slide Hampton, other stars, to light up 25th anniversary Carolina Jazz Festival

CHAPEL HILL -- Trombonist Slide Hampton, trumpeter Scott Wendholt and bassist Charlie Haden will be the maestros visiting the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for this year's Carolina Jazz Festival.

Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés will open the 25th annual festival with a concert Wednesday (Feb. 12), heralding a smorgasbord of shows Feb. 22 and 23 and Feb. 26-March 1. Highlights will include an all-day festival of high school bands, live "Jazz Under the Stars" in the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, master classes with the pros and free late-night jams by festival musicians in local night spots.

Festival director James Ketch, a UNC music professor, department chair and jazz studies director, said he is both gratified and impressed by the talent featured in this year's festival.

"Their instruction, demonstrations and performances will be a tremendous boon to our student jazz musicians, and their performances will lift the spirits of everyone in attendance," he said. "We're fortunate to have artists of such outstanding skill and experience coming to Carolina."

Hampton, a performer, composer, arranger and teacher for more than 30 years, is musical adviser to the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. He was musical director of Dizzy Gillespie's Grammy Award-winning United Nation Orchestra in 1989, and he won the 1998 Grammy for Best Jazz Arrangement with a Vocalist.

Wendholt has recorded and worked with numerous jazz stars and appears on more than 40 compact discs, including five of his own as a band leader. Bands in which he has played include The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and the Carnegie Hall Big Band.

Haden's Los Angeles-based Quartet West formed in 1986 and has five albums on the Verve label, including Grammy-nominated "Haunted Heart" (1991), "Always Say Goodbye" (1994) and "Now Is the Hour" (1996).

"We've developed a sound that has come from playing together for a long time," Haden has said. "Today, many CD's are recorded by thrown-together all-star bands whose personnel is always changing, and who never perform together long enough to develop their own sound. We've become very close, so that our music is all about inspiration."

Haden has recorded with notables including John Coltrane, Pat Methany and Hank Jones; he has played live with artists including singer Rickie Lee Jones. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Grammies and four grants for composition from the National Endowment for the Arts. He founded the jazz studies department at the California Institute of the Arts.

Some festival events are free; tickets for others are on sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays at the Carolina Union Box Office in the Frank Porter Graham Student Union. For more information, visit www.artscarolina.org, www.performingartsseries.unc.edu or call the box office at 962-1449 or the UNC music department at 962-1039. A schedule and details follow:

· Feb. 12, Chucho Valdés, 8 p.m., Hill Hall Auditorium. The Cuban pianist specializes in the complex rhythms of Cuba's African religious traditions, treating the piano at times as a sophisticated percussion instrument and infusing his compositions with jazz and classical touches. Rescheduled from October and presented by the Carolina Union Performing Arts Series. UNC-Chapel Hill students, $20; series subscribers, $30; others, $35.

· Feb. 22, Phi Mu Alpha High School Jazz Festival, 8:15 a.m. to 6 p.m., Hill Hall Auditorium, Person Recital Hall. Hundreds of musicians from area high school jazz bands and combos will perform and receive critiques recorded by local experts including Ira Wiggins, jazz studies director at N.C. Central University. The event will end with a late-afternoon performance by the UNC Jazz Band and an awards ceremony. Sponsored by UNC's Phi Mu Alpha chapter of the Sinfonians, a student group in the music department. Free.

· Feb. 23, Jazz Under the Stars III, 3 p.m., Star Theatre, Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. The UNC Jazz Combos will provide the musical backdrop for one of the Morehead's classic celestial shows. Ed Paolantonio directs the combos; Wally West, John V. Brown and Thomas Taylor coach the groups. All are faculty members in the UNC music department. Free for children and for UNC students with IDs, $5 for others.

· Feb. 26, Festival Sampler, 4 p.m., Hill Hall Auditorium. Jazz greats Slide Hampton on trombone and Scott Wendholt on trumpet join the UNC Jazz Lab Band, directed by music faculty member Wally West, and several jazz combos. Free.

· Feb. 27, 10th Anniversary North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra Big Band Bash!, 8 p.m., Hill Hall Auditorium. UNC music professor and department chair James Ketch, director of jazz studies, directs this 18-member orchestra of professional musicians from across the state. It mission: to preserve great jazz compositions and arrangements from the 1920s to the present. Ketch said the group will celebrate 10 years of playing swinging jazz from Murphy to Manteo in this anniversary appearance. The concert will feature music by Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and others. The concert may be recorded for a live compact disc. $5 for students and children, $10 for others.

· Feb. 28, Fred and Gail Fearing Jazz Series, UNC Jazz Combos with festival artists-in-residence Slide Hampton on trumpet and Scott Wendholt on trumpet, 4 p.m., 107 Hill Hall. Free.

· Feb. 28, Charlie Haden and Quartet West, 8 p.m., Hill Hall Auditorium. The Carolina Union Performing Arts Series will present this marquee concert of the festival. $20 for students, $35 for others.

· March 1, UNC Jazz Band with festival artists-in-residence Slide Hampton on trumpet and Scott Wendholt on trumpet, 8 p.m., Hill Hall Auditorium. UNC music faculty members John V. Brown and James Ketch, directors. This concert to close the festival will feature a student band that has performed by invitation at prestigious jazz festivals and recorded two CDs. Free for UNC students with IDs, $5 for others.

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Photo urls: To download photos of festival performers, click to http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/haden_charlie021103.jpg,
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/hampton_slide021103.jpg and http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/wendholt_scott021103.jpg

Festival contact: James Ketch, (919) 962-1039

News Services contacts: L.J. Toler, print, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu and Karen Moon, broadcast, (919) 962-8595, karen_moon@unc.edu