Trumpeter/band leader Vance Thompson marks a decade with the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra

KNOXVILLE — The Knoxville Jazz Orchestra has become one of Knoxville's musical jewels. Currently celebrating its 10th year, the KJO has toured Europe, recorded albums and gained a reputation both locally and internationally.

Trumpeter/composer Vance Thompson started the KJO in 1999. A graduate of Maryville High School and the University of Tennessee, Thompson earned a master's degree and taught at DePaul University in Chicago.

Sitting at his home in South Knoxville, which he shares with his wife, Emily, and their children, Sophia and Maria, Thompson says he started making phone calls to musicians about forming a jazz orchestra a month after moving back to Knoxville.

"I knew almost everybody already," he says. "I think it took about 30 minutes to set up that first practice."

Thompson was excited at the prospect of having a vehicle to perform the arrangements he'd written.

"And once we played together and everybody heard the potential, everybody got excited," he says. "That first year was a pure adrenaline rush."

The 17-member orchestra contains a wealth of professional players and educators, but the soft-spoken Thompson, who also teaches at UT, has remained the group's leader and figurehead.

Yet, three years ago, while the band was enjoying its increasing success, Thompson lost the ability to play.

The ordeal began in spring 2006 when Thompson decided to correct some long-term problems with how he positioned the trumpet on his mouth that he felt limited his ability to improve. He knew it would take some adapting and relearning to adjust to the new position (called the embouchure), but he figured he'd be back up to snuff when UT started in the fall.

"What happened was it got worse and worse," says Thompson. "In July and August, I wouldn't have even made it into a sixth-grade band. I had a range of maybe three notes.

"I had taken so many trumpet lessons over the course of my life I thought 'I've heard what everybody has to say about this, and if I just practice enough at the right embouchure, it'll come back.' "

It didn't.

Thompson continued to teach, but he no longer played trumpet with the KJO.

"I didn't want anybody to know," says Thompson. "I got to the point where I thought 'I'm done. I'm never going to be able to play again.' Here I am supposed to be teaching at the university. And I'm leading a band that I should be playing in."

Thompson tried to go back to his old way of playing, but that was gone, too.

"I had, though, kind of made up my mind that I was going to learn to play the right way or I wasn't going to play any more," he says.

Finally, Thompson made contact with Doug Elliott, a Washington, D.C.,-based trombonist who specialized in helping players in Thompson's predicament. He visited Elliott in September 2006.

"I spent two and half hours with him that first time, and in that time he was able to figure out what the problem was and put me on a course to get everything back," says Thompson.

Thompson says it was his daughter, Maria, who was 4 at the time, who gave him his first bit of affirmation.

"After that first lesson with Doug, I was at home practicing and I played a long tone that sounded halfway decent and I turned around and saw Maria. She started clapping and said, 'Dad, that only sounded a little bit like an elephant!' Part of the blessing of having kids is they put things into perspective," he says.

It took Thompson more than a year of retraining his muscles before he could undo the damage he had done and play in the proper position. It was a year and a half before he played in public again. He says it took longer still to relearn improvisational skills, but now he's playing better than ever and, as was his original goal, improving.

And the KJO is on track as well. The group's most recent album "Blues Man From Memphis: More From the Musical Mind of Donald Brown" has sold well by jazz standards, earned glowing reviews and gotten radio play in several major markets. The orchestra's concert series has expanded from four concerts to six for the 2009-10 season.

"The guys in the band have all been surprised at all the support the community has given," says Thompson.

The KJO also sponsors a youth jazz orchestra made up of promising high school musicians.

The band still has plenty of challenges ahead, but, Thompson says, the biggest one is always getting new audience members in the door the first time.

"The biggest thing I hear from first-timers is 'So and so dragged me here and I thought I would hate it, but I'll be back.' Jazz is an art form, but it is and always has been a form of entertainment. ... It may be hard to play, but it shouldn't be hard to listen to. All we're trying to do is make people happy."

Wayne Bledsoe may be reached at 865-342-6444.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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