Around the Horn

Jazz trumpet player Kenny Rampton returns to his hometown to perform as part of a sextet of Las Vegas musicians Sunday at the Reed Whipple Cultural Center.
Photo by Tony Scodwell

     
      When Kenny Rampton performs Sunday at Reed Whipple Cultural Center, it will be a homecoming of more than one kind for the Las Vegas native.
      The trumpet player will be back among friends and family -- and he'll be back to playing his own music, after years of playing other people's compositions as a busy sideman in New York.
      "I'm really looking forward to playing my own music," says Rampton, 32, during a recent phone interview from Istanbul, Turkey, where he had been performing with the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band. "I've been on the road so much the past five or six years as a sideman, I haven't had a chance to play my own music as much as I would like to. It'll be a treat."
      Rampton will be performing as part of a sextet of local musicians that includes Stefan Karlsson on piano, Phil Wigfall on alto sax, Rusty Blevins on tenor sax, Kevin Thomas on bass and Chris Benham on drums.
      Wigfall is an old friend from their college days together at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Berklee College of Music in Boston, but Rampton, who attended Bonanza High School, had heard of him before.
      "He was the alto sax player in high schools in Vegas," Rampton says. "He was a big influence on me at UNLV."
      They last jammed together six years ago.
      Rampton, who was born and raised in Las Vegas, attended UNLV and Berklee on full scholarships.
      His musical influences include trumpet player Wynton Marsalis, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Clifford Brown.
      In 1989, he moved to New York where he quickly got gigs touring with the Ray Charles Orchestra for a year, followed by a three-year stint with Panama Francis and the Savoy Sultans, and two years with the Jimmy McGriff Quintet.
      Currently, Rampton is performing and touring with The Mingus Big Band, Chico O'Farrill's Afro-Cuban Big Band, Bill Sims and the American Acoustic Roots Orchestra, the Jimmy McGriff Quartet and the Gruntz band.
      He has appeared at the Blue Note, Village Vanguard, Sweet Basil and jazz festivals around the world.
      Rampton comes from a musically inclined family. His father was a top percussionist in Las Vegas, performing with Elvis Presley, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra.
      From an early age Kenny Rampton began playing a variety of instruments. At 5 years old, he took piano lessons, and two years later he started playing the drums.
      But it wasn't until he was 11 that he picked up the trumpet and knew it was his instrument. He studied the instrument with Tommy Porello, an alumnus of the Harry James Band.
      At 16, Rampton began studying with local trumpet player Walter Blanton, and later continued with Art Farmer, Kenny Wheeler, Claudio Roditi and Muhal Richard Abrams, all major artistic influences.
      As leader of the Kenny Rampton Sextet, Rampton has performed at Birdland, The Five Spot, Visiones and the Museum of Modern Art's annual jazz series, all in New York.
      As a sideman, Rampton has performed with jazz veterans Jon Hendricks, Lionel Hampton, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Illinois Jacquet, Clark Terry and Slide Hampton.
      He was tapped by Marsalis to play in his big band on National Public Radio's "Making the Music" series. Also with Marsalis' big band, Rampton has recorded a CD and four-part video series, "Marsalis on Music," which aired nationwide on PBS.
      Rampton's other career highlights include performing Marsalis' "Six Syncopated Movements" for the New York City Ballet and a special engagement with Marcus Roberts and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. Rampton also performed the "Harlem Nutcracker" with the Donald Byrd Dance Company in 1998.
      His recording credits include "Heart Of A Legend" with O'Farrill; "Unforgettable" with Charles Earland; Shawn Colvin's "Holiday Songs and Lullabies"; Eijiro Nakagawa & Funk `55, also featuring two of Rampton's compositions; Lily White's "No Pork, Long Line"; and Bill Sims' "An American Love Story."
      The concert, sponsored by the Las Vegas Jazz Society and the city of Las Vegas, is $10 general admission; $7 for seniors and students; and $5 for Jazz Society members.
     
     Preview
     
      What: Kenny Rampton Sextet
      When: 2 p.m. Sunday
      Where: Reed Whipple Cultural Center, 821 Las Vegas Blvd. North
      Tickets: $7-$10