Go Vandals!!

 

1.  a person who deliberately destroys or damages public or private property.

 

2. a member of a Germanic people that ravaged Gaul, Spain, and North Africa in the 4th–5th 

    centuries and sacked Rome in AD 455.

-       Oxford English Dictionary

I was a bit confused when a van came to pick me up the first morning of the Jazz Festival with the word “Vandals” in big, bold letters. It turns out it’s the nickname of the University of Idaho’s teams. And given that the University is in Moscow, Idaho and Putin is vandalizing and trying to sack Ukraine, it seems like a dubious thing to celebrate. Who had that idea? 

As told on the “govandals.com Website, “Idaho’s student-athletes go by a name earned nearly a century ago by a basketball team coached by Hec Edmundson, whose teams played defense with such intensity and ferocity that sports writers said they “vandalized” their opponents.” Still, it’s a bit strange to read this weird little robot ‘s sign:

 

Which brings me to my recent experiences seeing the first Waymo vehicles in San Francisco with literally no one in them, to these lawn mowers in Switzerland, a go-bot in my daughter’s house and passing these little vehicles delivering food to “vandals” too lazy to go to the cafeteria. The Jetsons have finally come to pass and nothing about it charms me. I am not cut out for this world.

On the brighter side, how wonderful that this Jazz Festival and the U. of Idaho’s Music Building is named for Lionel Hampton! And how appropriate that I was using Orff xylophones and metallaphones in a festival honoring the first recorded jazz vibraphonist! The first University of Idaho Jazz Festival took place in 1967, with a dozen student groups and one guest artist. The festival continued to grow from there — erupting onto the national stage in 1982, when thousands of students and spectators came to hear Ella Fitzgerald.

In 1984, the festival’s most important relationship began when Lionel Hampton joined the excitement in Moscow. Inspired by the enthusiasm of the students, Hamp pledged his support to the festival and, in 1985, the festival was renamed in his honor. He came back just about every year until his death in 2002 at aged 94. The chair where he sat to listen to the student groups is still brought out at the concerts with flowers on it.

Unknown to me until I got there, the Festival has hosted an impressive list of jazz musicians, including Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Elvin Jones, Freddie Hubbard, Stan Getz, Carmen McRae, Roy Hargrove, Bobby McFerrin, Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis and yet more. This year featured Marcus Miller and Jason Marsalis, but both were on Saturday so I missed them. However, I did get to meet Habib Iddrisu, a fabulous Ghanaian musician/ dancer/ oral historian. Here we are and behind us, a statue of Lionel Hampton.

I woke up at 3:30 am to get the 5:00 am flight to Seattle and then the 9:00 am to San Francisco so I could get back in time to play at the Jewish Home at 2:00 pm. It was April 21^stand it was snowing outside! Luckily, no plane delays and as we descended into San Francisco, I couldn’t help but think that as much as I’ve loved and am loving traveling to places far and wide and near, it always feels good to come home to my “city by the Bay.”