The swinging notes of jazz can be heard through the halls of CHS every day. Dozens of students are involved in the craft, always looking forward to playing, improvising and improving.
On Tuesday, February 3, 2026, CHS hosted Jazz at Lincoln Center members, trumpet player Kenny Rampton and bari-sax player Paul Nezda. Alongside these guests was the visiting Huron High School Big Band.
“I’m very, very glad to be here,” Rampton said. “Teaching is more important to me than performing.”
Rampton has always lived around musicians. He grew up in Las Vegas, and his father was a percussionist who toured with Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and the Lou Elias Relief Orchestra in Las Vegas.
Rampton’s mother was the one who taught him how to read music. She was an organist for their local church. Reading music became a fundamental part of Rampton’s own career, which began to boom in the 90s.
He started touring in 1990 with Ray Charles. They then spent some time traveling and playing with the Illinois Jacket, Lionel Hampton, with the Jimmy McGriff quintet, and many other artists. He ended up working mostly with the Mingus Big Band.
“Over the years, I spent a lot of time doing Broadway shows and television,” Rampton said. “This is my 17th year on both Sesame Street and Jazz at Lincoln Center.”
The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra often reaches out to schools to ask if they would like somebody to come and work with the students. Due to their UMS residency in early February, the University Musical Society kindly offered to fund a masterclass for both Huron and Community Jazz.
“Education has always been a part of my life,” Rampton said. “It’s important to me to give back to communities and to help support music education.”
Rampton and Nezda requested that each performing ensemble play their best and worst tune. For Ash, playing his band’s best and worst song provided a great opportunity to get feedback at different stages of mastering a piece of music.
“Our worst song was one we’ve only been working on for a week,” Ash said. “It’s great to get another perspective when we’re still working through all the kinks. We’re at such a young stage with the music, so this opportunity was special.”
Nedza and Rampton then gave feedback and had the band try some things. The bands were made to add emphasis to certain phrases and notes and work on the tone.
After the big band, CHS’ top combo, O-Negative, performed. While Huron’s band has more than 15 people, the CHS combos only have up to seven. One of O-Negative’s members, Stav Shani, appreciated the feedback that his combo received.
“Nezda asked us to add a sort of nebulousness to our tune,” Shani said. “That resonated with me because normally we play very intensely and loud, and it’s time to expand our repertoire of feelings.”
After receiving feedback from Rampton and Nezda, the students wanted to see the two professionals use their own instruments. The two played the crowd of high school students off as they packed up chairs and left the Craft theater.
