Feelin’ groovy

A diverse lineup has come together, tickets are on sale and volunteers are being sought for the University of Idaho’s annual Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.

The 57th installment of the festival is slated for April 17-20 on the Moscow campus, with its signature combination of student workshops and professional performances, including concerts by  jazz veteran Kenny Garrett and rising star Veronica Swift.


Tickets for the full Thursday through Saturday night concert series in the ICCU Arena — featuring the World Music Celebration, Swift and Garrett, respectively — are $60-$150, with single shows running $25-$60 at uitickets.com.

Jazz fans on a budget have another option: Volunteers can receive as many as three free tickets, earning a ticket for every four hours of service. Students and community members able to help with tasks such as handling stage logistics, introducing performers, offering information to festival visitors, providing transportation for artists and distributing posters can sign up at uidaho.edu/class/jazzfest/volunteer.

Those who attend have stellar music in a selection of styles to look forward to, festival manager Navin Chettri said.

Swift, whose debut album, “Confessions,” came out in 2019, exhibits a powerful combination of talent, virtuosity and technique, Chettri said.

“Her presence on stage, and the ferociousness of that, is like Janis Joplin,” he said.

Garrett’s most recent album, “Sounds from the Ancestors,” came out in 2021, but he’s been a jazz fixture for decades, having played alongside the likes of the great Miles Davis.

“He’s considered one of the masters of modern jazz,” Chettri said.

Moroccan musician Samir LanGus and Seattle-based Jovino Santos Neto, originally from Rio de Janeiro, anchor the World Music Celebration.


LanGus plays a style of music called Gnawa, described on his website as “the ritual trance music of Morocco’s black communities, originally descended from the enslaved people and soldiers once brought to Morocco from Northern Mali and Mauritania.”


He’s excited for jazz fest attendees to experience it, Chettri said, noting Gnawa, while unfamiliar by name to many in the U.S., has influenced rock and jazz musicians in the West.

Santos Neto, a pianist, flutist and  composer, has been “huge” in helping shape Brazilian music in the U.S., Chettri said, establishing a presence he described as “profound.”

Stone (she/her) can be reached at mstone@inland360.com.