September 17, 1999
Web posted at: 2:00 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT)

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Stefon Harris performs live on CNN Showbiz Today Full audio performance: 1.7Mb MPEG-3 Audio clip: 275k WAV Video clip: 1.6Mb QuickTime  WHO'S PLAYING: September 17: -Along Came Betty -Terence Blanchard Group -Los Mocosos -Russell Malone Quartet -Kenny Barron Trio -Jeff Chimenti Trio -Chucho Valdes Quintet -Poncho Sanchez   Latin-Jazz Band -Los Van Van   September 18: -Lucky Peterson -Ruth Brown -Bobby "Blue" Bland -Smithsonian Jazz   Masterworks Orchestra -Diana Krall -Johnny Nocturne Band -Shemekia Copeland -Kyle Eastwood Quintet -Auckland Grammar School   Jazz Band -Sunnyside Jazz Orchestra -Uri Caine Trio -Donald Bailey, Vince Lateano   Eddie Marshall -Asian American Jazz Orchestra   September 19, 1999 -Clark Terry & Swing Fever -Wayne Krantz Trio -Dmitri Matheny -tin hat trio -Stefon Harris -Rio Americano Big Band -The 1999 Monterey Jazz   Fest All-Star Big Band -The Manhattan Transfer -Terence Blanchard Group -Toshiko Aikyoshi Jazz   Orchestra -Joshua Redman Band

MONTEREY, California (CNN) -- In its 42nd year, the Monterey Jazz Festival is doing something it's never tried before: Holding its first "Golf 'n' Jazz" tournament. While golfers are swinging on the greens of the Carmel Valley Ranch Resort, musicians including festival headliner Stefon Harris are warming up for a jam.

The golf tournament was held Thursday, with proceeds from the registration earmarked for donation to the festival's Jazz Education Fund. The performances start Friday and run through Sunday, with music ranging from Latin jazz to blues, and performances by artists from Manhattan Transfer to Diana Krall to violinist Regina Carter and vibes player Harris.

Harris, who performs Sunday night, is only 26, but he's already been called one of the most important vibraphonists on the scene in a long time. He taught himself to play piano and read music at the age of 6, after moving into an apartment in which the previous resident had left behind a piano.

"They had piano books in the bench, so I would sneak out at night and take the books and figure out how to read music," Harris told CNN Showbiz Today's Jim Moret.

He eventually learned how to play some 20 instruments, including the vibes, which he focused on after concluding that they're "the prettiest instrument." Part percussion, part bells, the instrument is in the same family as a piano and has a keyboard set up just like a piano. But "since you're hitting it with the sticks, it's considered a percussion instrument," he says.

And, he composes his own music. The fact that he released his second CD, "Black Action Figure," on September 14 on the esteemed jazz label Blue Note belies his brief tenure as a jazz musician -- he's only been playing jazz music for seven or eight years.

"I'm from upstate New York," he says. "When I was growing up, I didn't really hear a lot of straight-ahead jazz, and when I got to college, that's when I first started to hear it. Prior to that, I was just playing classical music."