Photo by Andrea Canter

Slide Hampton will be joined by the center's popular house band. Aspiring musicians are invited to attend and join in the jam session while jazz aficionados can sit back and enjoy the music.

The performance begins at 8 p.m. in the college's Little Theatre at 47th Avenue and Van Dam Street, Long Island City. Tickets are $10. Discounts available for students with ID.

Mr. Hampton, known as the international ambassador of American classical music, master trombonist, composer, and arranger, has played and performed with the most prominent musicians of the 20th century. In recognition of his enormous and profound contribution to the jazz field, he is a NEA 2005 Jazz Masters Fellow, America¹s highest honor in Jazz.

His 50-year jazz career began at the age of 12 when he joined the Hampton Band, led by his father, Lionel. The young trombonist went on to play with bands led by Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakely, Max Roach, Maynard Ferguson, Thad Jones, and Mel Lewis. Along with playing, he composed and arranged music for them.

In 1962, he led the Slide Hampton Octet with Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard, and George Coleman and toured in the U.S. and Europe and recorded on several labels. After traveling in Europe with Woodie Herman in 1968 he settled there and for the next 11 years performed in festivals, clubs, television, and radio with such expatriates as Kenny Clarke, Dexter Gordon, Art Farmer, Kenny Drew, and Benny Bailey.

Upon returning to the states in 1977, he formed the World of Trombones, a band of nine trombonists and a rhythm section, whose performances and recordings received critical acclaim. In 1990, he collaborated with Mr. Gillespie on his first original score for a feature film, "The Winter in Lisbon." And in 1998 he received a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Arrangement with a vocalist.

Most recently, he has served as musical advisor to the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band.