Rick Condit is one of the best-known and most distinguished musicians in Louisiana. He was discovered by Stan Kenton when he was a member of the first all-star high school band at the Monterey Jazz Festival and became Kenton's tenor sax soloist for a year, during which he toured with Kenton's band. He has performed with great artists such as Louis Belson, Clark Terry, Oliver Nelson, Ray Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, and Bob Hope, and since 1981 he has been a freelance musician and bandleader. He is a professor of music at McNeese and holds a Master's degree in music from North Texas State University. His group The Louisiana Jazz Five toured Central America and France, and his jazz duo (with Tom Wolfe) was selected by the Kennedy Center as one of seven groups in the nation to tour Africa as Jazz Ambassadors and to perform at Kennedy Center. He was awarded an Artist's Fellowship by the Division of the Arts of the State of Louisiana in 2000, and this year he has won a Fullbright Fellowship.