Jazzin'

By Tim Roberts

The Jamey Abersold Summer Jazz Workshop comes to town, Sunday, July 5 through Friday, July 10, at the University of Louisville School of Music on the Belknap Campus. As always, Jamey has corralled some top-notch professional jazz talent to lead the workshops and seminars: Dave Liebman, Adam Nussbaum, Harry Pickens, Hank Marr, Bobby Shew, Eric Alexander, Lynne Arriale, and many U of L music faculty members.

The Summer Jazz Workshop is for folks who simply want to improve their ability to improvise in jazz, whether professional, educator, student or amateur. All you need is a basic understanding of your horn and music.

Each workshop session concludes Monday, Tuesday and Thursday night with a faculty jam in the main recital hall. These performances are review sessions for workshop participants, but they are also free and open to the public. Some faculty members take this opportunity to present new compositions, so you have a chance to hear a new piece performed for the very first time.

In conjunction with the workshop, the Louisville Jazz Society (LJS) will present the faculty jazz concert on Wednesday, July 8 at Masterson's Food and Drink on Third Street. You can hear a number of quintets, sextets and septets cobbled together from an assortment of the faculty. Admission is $10.00, $7.00 for LJS members.

The Kentucky Center for the Arts has released the dates and acts slated for this year's Bank One Jazz Cabaret Series. Dick Sisto brings his band Culture Shock to the series on October 18. Crooner Everett Green returns to Louisville for his performance on November 15. Bobby J. and the Flying Martinis visit on December 20. Winchester, Kentucky native Cheryl Skinner concludes the series on January 10, 1999. Each show starts at 6 p.m. at the Clark-Todd Recital Hall at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. Subscriptions for the entire series are $46.00. Individual cost for each show is $13.50. Call the arts center box office at 584-7777 for more information.

Louisville's premiere trio The Java Men tell me they'll be touring a few cities on the East Coast for the first two weeks of July. They're scheduled to play a show at the Knitting Factory, a well-known club in New York City. They'll return to Louisville for a show on Thursday, July 14 at the Rudyard Kipling. Joining them will be Chicago-based Spazztet and Chapman stick virtuoso Greg Howard, who performed in the city earlier this year, and who appears on the latest release from the Dave Matthews Band. Admission is $6, show starts at 8:30 p.m.

One more word about this year's Jazz in Central Park: "Don't Miss It" (okay, so it's three words). It will be at the Raney Amphitheater on Saturday and Sunday, August 22 and 23. Admission is free. The music gets underway at 5 p.m. both days.

A Correction: I mistyped a performer's last name in the Jazzin' column last month. Booker T. Williams will perform as part of Culture Shock, not Booker T. Wilson. My apologies.

Live Jazz in Louisville: Hot town, summer in the city.