The University of Idaho Argonaut

Volunteers support jazz fest into the early hours of the morning

Junior Zack Freeman (left) and sophomore Dylan Crawford (right) load drum kits into moving vans late Tuesday night at a storage facility on Jackson Street. For more pictures, scroll down past the story. -Kentaro Murai/Argonaut

It’s 11:30 p.m. and a dozen students are milling about a room filled with more than 20 drum kits, a couple dozen guitar amps and a handful of electric pianos. In the corner, three guys dressed in work clothes have a quick meeting to decide what to do with the instruments and the people there to help transport them.

The Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, now in its 40th year, relies on a pool of student and community volunteers to make it one of the premier jazz festivals in the country. During the daytime, volunteer drivers shuttle renowned jazz artists around town, and guides help elementary, middle school and high school jazz ensembles get to performances and clinics.

What most people don’t see are the night crews that set up clinic sites across Moscow in the dead of night. Many of these volunteers are music majors that have already performed in ensembles in the day and evening. Their work begins on the Sunday before jazz fest, unloading unwieldy big-band risers out of the cramped confines of the Alumni Office.

For the rest of the week, the volunteers meet after the main Kibbie Dome concerts and don’t get started until after 11 p.m. Moving vans are used to transport complete drum sets, electric pianos and guitar amplifiers to locations such as the third floor of the Idaho Commons or the LDS Church on Blaine Street. This undertaking typically takes three moving vans, three paid night crew leaders and around a dozen volunteers. Most sites get done in a few hours though there have been setups that weren’t completed until 4 a.m. in years past.

Bill Denton, a salesman at Harry Richie’s Jewelers in the Palouse Mall, is one of three paid night crew leaders. Denton started volunteering in 2001 and has been a crew leader for the past two years. While there are more prestigious jobs available during the daytime, Denton said he feels the night crew is vital to keep jazz fest said he running smoothly.
“I took this job on because I had a lot of fun with it in the past. I enjoy this side of jazz fest because I’ve never been gaga over famous people or anything. I like this side because it makes the jazz festival run. Without this crew, it just doesn’t work.”

Getting people to volunteer time that would be typically used for sleep can be hard some years, but the incentive of free concert tickets is usually enough to fill the ranks. Besides the tickets, volunteers have various reasons for tagging along.

“I had two hours free in the middle of the day today just after concert band. I found Bill moving a marimba and I gave him a hand,” says Mike Locke-Paddon, a composition graduate. Along with the rest of the night’s volunteers, he stands in front of the percussion room of the music building, chatty but ready to get work done.

After picking up music stands in Potlatch, Denton talked Locke-Paddon into helping that night.
“I figured I’d come down and help,” Lock-Paddon says.
Hilary McAlister, a returning volunteer and a junior in music education, wasn’t overly excited about volunteering but still decided to join the crew. McAlister opted to be on a night crew rather than volunteer to drive so she could go to the jazz clinics during the day.

“Every year I say, ‘I’m not going to do it again,’ but I end up doing it again,” she says.
Though most music classes are cancelled during Jazz Fest week to accommodate clinics and workshops, many of the night crew volunteers are busy performing in several concerts a day. McAlister has a jazz band competition, Trombone Factory rehearsal and a concert to take part in the next day.

“Some people volunteer just because they enjoy night crew, which is strange,” Denton says.
Though volunteers can be worn when the time comes to set up sites, the crew leaders who are directly responsible for what makes the site run or grind to a halt, are under a tremendous amount of stress. One of the biggest concerns for these leaders is forgetting to set up particular instruments at clinic locations.

“You get calls at 6 a.m. saying ‘This isn’t here and it needs to be in half an hour,’ and then I have to wake up when I’m already tired,” Denton says. He averages five hours of sleep during jazz fest week.
This kind of complication occurred last year with returning crew leader Andy Crossler when he was unable to get into Moscow High School due to a mix-up with the building key. The site had to be ready by 7 a.m. the next day. With only three hours of sleep, Crossler got up the next morning and set the site up himself.
“It put a lot of strain on us for the next morning. It was very bad,” Crossler recalls.

These are rare occurrences, however, and both night crew and leaders are a tight-knit group who have their fair share of fun setting up sites in the dead of night. Any weariness due to lack of sleep or physical exertion from moving heavy yet delicate equipment is nullified by simply hanging out with each other and goofing around. Some crew members don’t even have a strong interest in jazz music.
“I did get offered a ticket, but I didn’t accept it,” Locke-Paddon says. “I love jazz, it’s really cool, but I’m just not really into it. I always feel like I’m wasting my time here and I could be contributing somehow. I wanted to help contribute a little bit. Plus, I’ve never done night crew before.”

Sophomores Markus Hoyer (left) and Dylan Crawford (right) look over their Jazz Fest tickets after setting up a clinic site early Wednesday morning at the LDS Church on Blaine Street. -Kentaro Murai/Argonaut

Night Crew volunteers load and tally music stands into one of the moving vans late Tuesday at the Music Building. -Kentaro Murai/Argonaut

Night crew leader Bill Denton hands out tickets at the end of a site set up early Wednesday morning at the LDS Church on Blaine Street. -Kentaro Murai/Argonaut

Senior Kevin Kovalchik tunes a drum kit while other members of the night crew take a break early Wednesday morning at the LDS Church on Blaine Street. -Kentaro Murai/Argonaut