Hampton’s JazzMasters Are Dedicated to Diz : Jazz: The trombonist’s career has been rejuvenated by the orchestra devoted to presenting the music of friend and founder Gillespie in fresh arrangements.

Slide Hampton remembers the first time he saw trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie perform. The trombonist was a young initiate in the early ‘50s, living in Indianapolis, the same town that had produced fellow trombonist J.J. Johnson.

“It was quite a music center in those days,” Hampton recalled earlier this week in a phone call from Sacramento during a stop with his JazzMasters orchestra and its tribute to the late trumpet giant Gillespie. That group, featuring saxophonists Paquito D’Rivera and Jimmy Heath, stops tonight at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

“There was a booking agency there that handled African-American bands from all over the country, and most of them would stop there while they were touring,” he said. “A lot of musicians were from there: (trumpeters) Freddie Hubbard, Booker Little. I knew all the Montgomery brothers--Wes, Buddy, Monk--very well. They were a big influence on all the young people who wanted to be musicians there.”

The band Gillespie led that night in Indianapolis contained more than a few members who would go on to great things. “(Saxophonists) Jimmy Heath, John Coltrane and Paul Gonsalves were all in the group, and what they played just astonished us. There we were, young people trying to develop some understanding of the music. But what Gillespie and (Charlie) Parker were playing back then was simply overwhelming.”

Ten years later, Hampton was playing in Gillespie’s band with the likes of pianist Wynton Kelly, trumpeter Lee Morgan and saxophonist Benny Golson. In the mid-’60s, he left the U.S. to spend a decade in Europe, but when he returned, his relationship with Gillespie solidified and, by the time the legendary trumpeter died earlier this year, Hampton was a featured member of his United Nations Orchestra, a cross-cultural ensemble that put a heavy emphasis on Latin rhythms.

Before Gillespie’s death, the trumpeter, Hampton and Gillespie’s long-time manager Charles Fishman took the core group of musicians from the United Nations Orchestra and formed the JazzMasters. With Gillespie gone, the ensemble is dedicated to presenting its founder’s music. “After Diz put the United Nation Orchestra together, based on concepts and people from all the Latin countries,” said Hampton, “he decided to put together a group with a more straight-ahead concept.

“We play some of the same music as the United Nations Orchestra, but with a different approach. Instead of the Latin base, we use some Afro-rhythms, some straight-ahead rhythms, while trying to bring a modern, post be-bop feel to the arrangements,” he said. “Of course, we’re influenced by Dizzy’s way of orchestrating. But the music is completely different than his.”

Proof can be found on the JazzMasters’ first CD, “Dedicated to Diz” on the Telarc label. Recorded live at New York’s Village Vanguard last February, the album features Hampton’s arrangements of a handful of Gillespie’s best-known numbers.

Unlike the highly rhythmic version of “Night in Tunisia” on the United Nations Orchestra’s 1989 “Live at the Royal Festival Hall” recording, Hampton’s arrangement for the JazzMasters is almost pensive in its sultry suggestiveness.

“We wanted to bring something new to the music,” Hampton explained.

Most of that newness comes via Hampton’s arrangements, which are harmonically rich and rhythmically variable. With soloists including trombonist Steve Turre (a member of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” band), and trumpeter Claudio Roditi, it’s an ensemble with plenty of personality.

The JazzMasters band has also brought new life to Hampton’s career.

Long respected not only for the natural sound with which he plays the instrument from which he got his nickname, but for his composing and arranging skills as well, Hampton joined pianist Buddy Johnson’s band in the mid-’50s before spending time with vibist Lionel Hampton and trumpeter Maynard Ferguson.

In the ‘60s, he gained notice leading and writing for various editions of his octet, a group that included his hometown cronies Hubbard and Little as well as fellow-trombonist Julian Priester and saxophonist George Coleman.

Hampton all but disappeared from the American jazz scene when he moved to Europe in 1966.

“Starting in the ‘60s, the whole music scene in the U.S. was saturated by pop music,” he explained. “That’s why a lot of jazz musicians went to Europe at the time. The big difference there was the amount of subsidies given for music projects.”

Hampton, who lives in New York, says the audience for jazz in this country has been growing for the past several years. But when he came back to the states in 1977 he scuffled, working clubs and writing, before bringing together his “World of Trombones” ensemble, which featured nine slides and a rhythm section.

Given his history of concept projects, the JazzMasters seems a natural for Hampton. He has started writing material for its next album: a tribute to Charlie Parker. (Hampton says the group may do one of those numbers tonight.)

“Diz is the focus for now, but next year we’ll be moving on to Parker. We can find something different every year that will be important to the music’s line of development: (Thelonious) Monk, (John) Coltrane, the funk of Horace Silver, the be-bop of Bud Powell. There’s just an endless source of good material to work with.”

* Slide Hampton and the JazzMasters with Jimmy Heath and Paquito D’Rivera play tonight at 8 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. $16 to $32. (714) 556-2787.