Music is more than a hobby for Wycliffe Gordon — it’s a lifestyle.

Everything is connected in Gordon’s world.

Influenced by other jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, the Wycliffe Gordon Quintet plays its music with honor. Courtesy Wycliffe Gordon

The many roles he has filled, including trombonist, composer and teacher, all thread together his love and inspiration through music — and his wish to share that connection with others.

The same can be said of one of Gordon’s idols, Louis Armstrong, who has played an influential role in Gordon’s musical endeavors from the beginning.

“I love his music,” Gordon said. “But his music was a manifestation of his person, and it just came out. I love what he stood for. He understood that people were all the same. The music was one thing. What made the music was Louis Armstrong the person.”

For Gordon, playing music is also most benefited in collaboration and sharing with others.

“You can practice by yourself and develop individual musicianship,” he said. “But making music is always more fun when you’re playing with other people.”

Gordon will collaborate with other musicians in the Wycliffe Gordon Quintet to perform the music of his idols, including that of Armstrong.

“I am working with a band of musicians that know and understand that music,” Gordon said. “We can play any year of jazz and articulate it.”

Gordon enjoys coming back home to Georgia after success all over the United States with national honors ranging from membership to the U.S. Statesmen of Jazz to Wycliffe Gordon Day on Aug. 17 in Augusta.

“Being from the South makes some things a part of my upbringing, like speaking slow and saying ‘yes m’am’ and ‘no m’am.’ It’s just a certain type of upbringing, and I am lucky to have it,” Gordon said. “I always look forward to coming back.”

The Southern boy was raised on trumpet, jazz and home cooking.

“I started to play when I was 12. I wrote some little things, but once I began to listen more, I started to perform, play and compose,” Gordon said.

To Gordon, what was on the radio at the time couldn’t hold his attention while what was inspiring him were the classics of jazz. This relationship with old music and its creators would grow to last much longer than the one-hit wonders of the time — it has lasted a lifetime.

“I loved the music of Louis Armstrong,” Gordon said. “I didn’t know why because it wasn’t the popular music of the time. I was naturally drawn to it at an early age, and I grew to idolize him.”

So Gordon wants to re-discover that joy in music and then share it with others.

“We want to share jazz with the world,” he said. “And everything’s connected. For me, education is a means of doing that; performance is a means of doing that; practice is a means of doing that — of sharing music. All of these things make up myself as a musician, as a performer, as an arranger. I feel like I am in all of those categories.”

WYCLIFFE GORDON QUINTET-HELLO POPS!
Where: Hodgson Concert Hall
When: Monday 8 p.m.
Price: $5 students/$20-35