PORT ANGELES – In 1926, a jazz musician named Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong recorded his first big hit.
“Heebie Jeebies” sold 40,000 copies and popularized scat singing, an improvisational style of vocalizing that substitutes random syllables for lyrics.
That original recording is all but lost, but for 11 years, a summer camp by that name passed down its legacy to young musicians.
Based in Montana, Camp Heebie Jeebies wasn’t held last summer, but with the help of the Jazz in the Olympics Society, it has been born again – on the North Olympic Peninsula.
“We had so many students on the West Coast, it makes sense,” said camp co-founder Karla West.
West lives in Whitefish, Montana, where she helped organize the first Camp Heebie Jeebies in 1995.
Held at Seeley Lake, Mont., it drew middle and high school musicians from the Northwest for a week of workshops in traditional and big-band style jazz.
But last year, a scheduling conflict knocked Camp Heebie Jeebies off the map.
“Our students had to go to Sacramento for jazz camp,” said Bud Critchfield, youth coordinator for the Jazz in the Olympics Society.
“They didn’t like it.”
