Top young jazz trumpeter Abram Wilson is one of the star attractions at this year's Durham Brass Festival, yet he only really set out from the US two years ago. He talks to Viv Hardwick.

TO promising twenty-something US jazz performer Abram Wilson it seemed the best way of improving his playing was to get on a plane, fly to Paris and knock on the door of music impresario Quincy Jones.

He never made it to France, but his flight to Europe kick-started a two-year career in London which saw him become an essential addition to Dune Records as a player, vocalist, composer and educator. Last year's debut album, Jazz Warrior, saw the New Orleans trumpeter heralded as the man who arrived in the Big Smoke via the Big Easy and the Big Apple.

Wilson takes part in Durham's Fifth Brass Festival this weekend, with workshops and appearances outside the Gala Theatre plus performances at Palace Green on Wednesday and back at the Gala on July 14.

"I'm very pleased to be working with Durham's brass band players," he says. "I can see a heritage in what they doing. These are families with brothers, sisters and fathers, uncles and aunts who have played instruments so it's not a foreign thing to pick up a horn or a trombone. It's very gratifying to see people embracing brass-playing like that.

"They haven't had a lot of experience with jazz playing but their interest and eagerness and willingness to develop themselves has been immense. I've done one workshop with a youth band and I've been working with the police band in Durham. Both bands are incredibly receptive to jazz music in general though having to do things like sway is harder for the older ones to deal with because you have to break the habits of a lifetime.

"It is possible to get a police band to swing because it's what they want to do. They won't be swinging like Elvin Jones (the jazz drummer who died last year) but it's definitely further along the line and progress has been made."

Wilson's own tradition is the jazz brass band of New Orleans. "This is where the swing and syncopated aspect come from, rather than the straight quavers that British brass bands play," he explains. "The bands are a lot smaller in the US and a there's a lot more improvisation going on. Orchestration and arrangement is pretty similar but the style in which we play and the rituals are different."

Which is why he's teaching Durham players a New Orleans funeral march which opens slowly and becomes faster to celebrate the person's passing.

Wilson decided to fly to Europe after reading about Josephine Baker, Quincy Jones and Miles Davis and how American jazz performers had travelled out to Europe and become very well-respected. "Quincy Jones was a hero of mine and although I don't know him I decided one night I was going to get on a plane, go to France and do something like knock on his door and introduce myself."

He ended up in London instead and played at clubs recommended by passengers on the plane to the UK. "I met the Warriors and Soweto Kinch and Denys Baptiste and I was amazed at the general proficiency of playing the blues and swing. When I asked people where they were from they said places like Birmingham and South London and I was dumbfounded. One thing led to another and I stayed."

Wilson admits he still hasn't got round to tracking down his hero despite several working trips to France, although he's been told that his growing reputation might lead to the two meeting professionally in future.

"It's actually not that far off being able to happen because I'm proficient at what I do and I'm not going to come into a studio session with Quincy Jones and be outclassed. I'm going to bring what I can to the table and display what I can do well. But he's worked with Count Basie and he's a heavyweight."

Wilson has been giving trumpet lessons since he was about 13. "In those days it was nine-year-olds and now I'm kind of teaching guys older than me which is cool too," he says. "Singing, playing and teaching give me a satisfaction that's very similar because when you see a student's eyes light up through understanding a challenge that's just as good as playing something and the audience going wild."

There's no doubt he feels the pressure to live up to his reputation as one of the world's best trumpet players, but he likes pressure. "It can be a burden but I see it as more of a challenge. I think let's try to live up to those expectations and life will be cool."

Wilson got to hear about the Durham Brass Festival by chance and was delighted with the organisers' ambition of widening the appeal of brass to all genres of music.

"I was a perfect candidate for that, partly through the Gateshead Jazz programme we did where I was involved in a lot of conducting and because I include music from various cultures."

* Saturday July 2, Sun July 3, July 14 (12 noon) free open-air performances - Abram Wilson Festival Band at Millennium Place, Durham City.

Wednesday July 6 (7.30pm) Abram Wilson Sextet - The Concert Room, Durham University Music Department, Palace Green, Durham 0191-332 4041.