this one
Tim Roberts

Jazzin'
By Tim Roberts

Heckuva summer, wasn't it? Days with bakery-oven temperatures and air as damp as an unchanged diaper. With that pleasant image firmly etched into your imagination, let's talk about jazz.

It's an unwritten rule of being a musician: you must introduce a new generation to the taskmastering intricacies and sheer joy of playing music. Running a distant second and third are mooching free beer from the club where you're playing and having people throw their undergarments at you during a performance (regardless of how well you sound).

To honor that first rule, Louisville percussionist Hugh Petersen has received a $3,000 grant from the Kentucky Council for the Arts to teach students of Ed White's River City Drum Corps how to read music and play percussion. Most of the funds will be used to purchase new instruments so the students will always have something in playable shape as they advance through their lessons.

Through their work with the kids in the drum corps, Ed and Hugh embody the words of Louisville music's tribal elder Marvin "What the Hell" Maxwell: "It's cheaper than a boat, safer than a motorcycle and guaranteed to make the young ones smarter: play music."

For more information on the corps, call Ed White at 361-5199.

While he's not busy instructing the young folks, Hugh is entertaining us older ones. You can catch him Saturdays from 10 p.m. to midnight at the Utopia International Café on Frankfort Avenue. Craig Wagner and Brian Vincent join him, along with a semi-regular variety of guest performers. Hugh will also appear at Syl's Lounge on West Broadway every Thursday night for the next two months.

Tony McDaniel of Splatch says the band is still in the mixing (and remixing) phases for their second CD. Until you get are able to add that item to your collection, you can always catch them live. They will be at Phoenix Hill Tavern for the Phall Ball on Friday, September 3; at Clifton's on Sunday, September 12, from 7 to 10:30 p.m.; and at the Bardstown Bourbon Festival on Saturday, September 18. So you have three local chances to see the band the Cleveland Plain Dealer calls one of the hottest jazz acts in the Midwest.

They love to open email. Send them some at Splatch@earthlink.net.

Congratulations to Splatch guitarist Gary Crawford at his wife Diaz, both the beaming parents of Gardazly D'Shea Crawford, born on July 29. The Crawford's daughter weighed five pounds and six ounces. Mother, child, and father are all doing well.

Before their (ahem) "temporary" breakup, the Java Men did manage to record some material for CD release. Todd Hildreth states they are "sitting on the material for the moment," waiting to either record some more or begin mixing what they have. The recording is slated for a fall or winter release.

Todd is still part of E-trio, with Gary Claude and Chris Fitzgerald, which you can hear every Monday night at 9:00 at Twice-Told CoffeeHouse.

"Jazzin'" columnist Tim Roberts should straighten up and fly right, if he knows what's good for him. Send your jazz-related dispatches to tim@troberts.win.net, or to his attention to the editorial offices of Louisville Music News.