By: Kaci King
11/9/2006

From a small practice room in the Riney Fine Arts Building, the blaring sounds of a trumpet echo forcefully throughout the hallway. The door to the practice room opens quietly as a tall and slender young man concentrates intently on his breathing and hand techniques. He looks up briefly and then returns without missing a note to the captivating melody his fingers have so carefully constructed.

“Just messing around,” said freshman Nathan Williams, a new addition to Friends’ jazz program this fall. Williams’ quiet and non-abrasive demeanor leads some to wonder how someone so laid back can play jazz so intensely.

“It’s like he has to get it out of him,” said LaTonya Williams, Nathan’s mother.

It was during the fifth grade, when Nathan decided to try something new, that his love for playing the trumpet developed. By middle school, LaTonya began noticing her son attempting to imitate the style of famous jazz musicians like Miles Davis.

 “He started to get in trouble for playing the trumpet at times of the night when he should have been asleep,” she said. “I realized his passion was unique. While most boys his age were into playing sports, he was listening to jazz and playing his trumpet.”

When Williams was attending Wichita public schools, there was no special training to teach students to play jazz, so he decided to take matters into his own hands and began to teach himself.

“I knew how strong my passion for jazz is, so I took it upon myself to learn it. I started playing by ear and teaching myself songs and reading books,” Williams said.

Although Williams eventually learned to read music, he said he feels most comfortable playing it by ear. By the beginning of his senior year in high school, he was courted by a number of universities. After receiving one of the top scholarships offered by the Fine Arts Department, Williams joined the jazz program at Friends as a guest student last spring. He currently is a music education major and in his spare time teaches children at the local Boys and Girls Club.

Lisa Hittle, director of jazz, is excited about Williams’ arrival at Friends and is still taken aback by the amount of raw talent he displays.

“He is just so naturally talented, it like he was born to play jazz trumpet,” she said.

Hittle has arranged for Williams to play for events at Friends and throughout Kansas. Last spring, Hittle said, Williams performed during Jazz Night at Friends and for one of the governor’s Democratic fund-raisers. Williams also played at North Texas State University, where Hittle said he was well received.

“My goals are to see him develop into a great teacher as well as a player and keep improving,” said Hittle. “I would like to see him get into a top notch graduate school and get into a bigger market.”

Although Hittle is aware of Williams’ raw talent, she said, “He still needs to work hard to get where he needs to go.”

LaTonya Williams said that wherever her son ends up in life, she wants him to do something that makes him happy.

It seems that Williams has already figured out what that is.

“I just want people to feel what I feel when I am playing,” he said. “If I’m playing with passion I want them to take that home with them. If I can do that, I’ve accomplished my goal.”

As the door to the practice room closes, Williams returns to his trumpet. The hallway once again is consumed by his jubilant sounds of jazz.