Jazz musicians get to jam in New York

Three Columbia Falls musicians recently played in New York City as members of the Flathead Ellington Project.

The project is led by Whitefish professional saxophonist Erica von Kleist and is made up of some of the best high school jazz musicians in the Flathead Valley.

Columbia Falls juniors Afton Wendt, Brian Phipps and Sam Lovering all auditioned for the project earlier this year. They were stoked not only to play with fellow high school musicians, but they also wanted to see and play in New York. The trio cut videos of themselves playing for von Kleist and they were happy to make the cut.

“I thought it would be fun,” Phipps said. “And I wanted to go to New York,” he added.

“I love jazz. Another opportunity to play the trumpet,” Wendt said.

Once in New York, they played a gig at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem as part of the Essential Ellington Jazz Competition.

But it was the city that most impressed them.

They also watched Barbara King sing at a jazz club and went to a Broadway show, among other things.

“I love New York,” Wendt said. “It’s my city. I was born there,”

She was born in Middletown, which is a little more than an hour from the Big Apple.

Afton wants to go on to be a music teacher after high school.

“When you teach high school, you have an opportunity to make a difference,” she said.

Phipps said he hopes to stay in the music field as a producer. Lovering said while he wants to always keep music in his life, he’s pursuing a career in computer science after high school.