With the untimely death of the Park City Jazz Festival, the Salt Lake City International Jazz Festival stands as the largest music festival devoted to jazz in the Beehive State.

And international it is.

Past performers have come from all over the world to play at the festival, including luminaries such as Take 6, Kurt Elling, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Hiroshima, Tower of Power, Spyro Gyra, Dee Daniels, Dianne Reeves, Mindi Abair, the Juilliard Faculty Jazz Sextet and, last year, "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane.

This year, the bill includes icons such as Sheila E and Ellis Hall, who pack venues all over the world.

But one of the special features of this particular jazz festival is the way it provides a showcase for performers with a Utah connection. Utah jazz is not just the moniker of a basketball team, but a testament to the talented jazz musicians who are inextricably linked to this state.

The Salt Lake Tribune talked to four musicians slated to perform this year who illustrate that Utah has a claim to being a birthplace and home to top jazz musicians, just as New Orleans, Chicago and New York City do.

Russell Schmidt • The incoming director of jazz studies at the University of Utah School of Music will head his own quartet Friday, July 8, at 9 p.m., as well as supporting The Cannonball Band at 6:45 the same evening.

"I am very grateful for [festival organizer] Jerry Floor for allowing me to introduce myself to the local music community and open some doors for me," said Schmidt, a talented jazz pianist who will be joined by Jeff Campbell, Greg Floor and Greg Campbell (all Utah natives). "I am going to be indebted to Jerry for several decades."

Schmidt succeeds Henry Wolking, who was director of jazz studies as well as a professor of music at the University of Utah from 1972 to his retirement this year.

Schmidt was most recently on the faculty of Arizona State University — where his wife is a viola professor — and before that was an associate professor of music performance studies and director of jazz activities at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He also was on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. At Eastman, he developed a friendship with Jeff Campbell, a Bountiful native who is now an associate professor of jazz studies at Eastman. Playing with his old friend Jeff Campbell "should be a lot of fun, Schmidt said.

A composer and arranger, Schmidt said has always been drawn to jazz because "jazz is real-time composition," he said.

Emilee Floor • The jazz pianist and singer was born and raised in Utah, having graduated from Skyline High School and earning two degrees from the University of Utah. After stints teaching French at Westminster and playing the piano at local lounges and restaurants including Salt Lake City's Cinegrill, Floor is now living in New York City, playing six nights a week from 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. at the city's landmark Waldorf-Astoria, inside Peacock Alley. In addition, she also plays piano at the Plaza Hotel five days a week from 2 to 5 p.m.

Playing piano and singing at these hotels is 180 degrees from playing the keys at the local Best Western. When Floor applied for the position in 2008 at the Waldorf-Astoria, she had a two-week audition. On the first night of the audition, Mia Farrow was seated a few feet away, Floor said. After two weeks, she was called back for another one-week audition. She was offered the job and has lived in the Big Apple after spending her whole life in Utah.

Floor's specialty is the Great American Songbook — though she downloads sheet music for Katy Perry and other more recent stars onto her iPad in case someone requests "California Gurls" — and has played in front of Joe and Jill Biden, Paul Shaffer, Martin Short, Stevie Wonder and too many prime ministers to count. Ben Kingsley even gave her the thumbs-up last week, she said. She said she has gotten used to seeing the Secret Service scoping out the exclusive club before she is allowed to perform.

Floor will perform at the Jazz Festival at 4 p.m. on Sunday in a program dubbed "Just Doing What I Do."

Jeff Campbell • The Bountiful native has taught at the Eastman School of Music since 1997 and is returning this coming weekend to perform the standup bass as part of the Russell Schmidt Quartet. Not only is he a professor, but he is also a regular contributor to Double Bassist magazine and the jazz editor at Bass World magazine.

This is the Woods Cross High School and Brigham Young University graduate's first appearance at the Jazz Festival, though he once played a GAM Foundation-sponsored JazzSLC concert backing up the spectacular trumpeter Byron Stripling (who has also played the Jazz Festival).

Besides being at the Jazz Fest reconnecting with Schmidt, Campell will be joined in Utah this week by his four brothers, who will celebrate their parents' 50th wedding anniversary.

Campbell is ecstatic about being able to play with Schmidt. "I'm thrilled he's at the university," Campbell said. "He's so good at articulating what the students need to do."

Greg Floor • The son of Jerry Floor and brother of Emilee is a Skyline High and University of Utah grad, and has two master's degrees — one from the New England Conservatory and another from the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Massachusetts.

After stints as associate professor of jazz studies at the University of Utah and adjunct positions at Westminster College and Snow College, Floor accepted a position as admissions director at Holy Cross in 2008.

Despite the job responsibilities, Floor has continued to perform jazz at a high level, performing with the Boston Pops between 25 and 30 times a year as a saxophonist. The conductor of the Boston Pops is, of course, Keith Lockhart, former music director of the Utah Symphony. The two met when Lockhart complimented Floor after the two performed at the Deer Valley Music Festival.

This coming weekend, he will perform throughout the festival, including with the flagship of the festival, the Salt Lake City Jazz Orchestra, Saturday at 5 p.m.

dburger@sltrib.com

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Salt Lake City International Jazz Festival

When • Friday to Sunday, July 8-10.

Where • Washington Square, 450 S. 200 East, Salt Lake City.

Tickets • Single admission: $10 at www.slcjazzfestival.org; $16 at gate; Three-day pass: $25 at www.slcjazzfestival.org, $35 at gate.

Info • www.slcjazzfestival.org.