On Saturday, Oct. 4, downtown Hartsville will be alive with jazz, featuring Hartsville native Wilbur Thompson of Charlotte, N.C., and the Professors of Soul from Greer.
It’s the 11th annual Jazz! Carolina downtown block party from 7 p.m. until midnight. The free event will take place under the stars on East Carolina Avenue between Fourth and Fifth streets. Attendees may bring their own chairs, sit at sponsored tables or reserve tables for eight. Several Hartsville restaurants will be providing food.
Thompson, a graduate of Hartsville High School and former member of the Unit 7 jazz trio, who played often at Bizzell’s Food & Spirits, will be downtown with his band, which also features Greg Dampier on drums, another Hartsville native who is living and working in Nashville, Tenn.
A multi-instrumentalist, Thompson’s instrument of choice is the upright bass. He comes from a musically talented family. His parents are the Rev. and Mrs. Sylvester Thompson. He has been playing musical instruments since he was a child and was introduced to jazz as a teenager.
Thompson worked for a couple of years as a personal banker in Charlotte, N.C., but couldn’t avoid the love affair with jazz that had been ignited in him years earlier.
Thompson had to acknowledge that for him, music is life.
“While working at the bank, I realized how much I needed the music,” he said.
Although he said he was doing good work, he realized it wasn’t what he was meant to do.
Why jazz? Thompson said he feels a spiritual connection with the music.
A Winthrop University graduate with a degree in music, Thompson said he has a vision for his music to infuse jazz with a spiritual message that is consistent with his Christian faith.
This will be the first time that Dampier and Thompson have played together in five years.
“Greg and I have both grown, so much (musically). It’s going to be great playing with him again. I am really excited about this performance, being home and reuniting with Greg,” he said.
The Professors of Soul is a music group that grew from the dreams of Monty Craig, bandleader and guitarist and Brian Kennedy, drums.
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