Get Your Jazz Pulse Taken at 5th Annual ‘Drew’ Festival

Jazz blending with reggae, a performance with two pianists and two drummers, free physical checkups--they’re all part of the 5th annual “Jazz at Drew,” the two-day festival to be held Oct. 7-8 in the garden courtyard of the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.

The lineup for the festival, from 1 to 10 p.m. each day, includes jazz artists such as Milt Jackson and Cedar Walton, singers Ernestine Anderson and reggae stylist Joe Higgs, the Jamaican who was a mentor to Bob Marley.

“We’re bringing African American classic music--which is jazz, America’s original art form--together with roots music, reggae, and they will meet here at Drew,” said Roland Betts, the event’s executive producer.

Saturday’s roster boasts Walton’s Eastern Rebellion with Ralph Moore and Billy Higgins, Donald Byrd, Ndugu Chancler, Harry (Sweets) Edison, Dale Fielder, John Bolivar and Billy Mitchell. Sunday’s show features Anderson, Jackson, Dwight Tribble, George Bohanon’s sextet with Oscar Brashear, Nate Morgan and Horace Tapscott. “Horace has asked for two pianos and some other things, so that should be a pleasant surprise,” said Betts.

This year, the fest will honor several players with the Drew Jazz Awards, citing Walton for music composition, Higgins for community service, Chancler for service to youth, Bohanon for jazz preservation, and others. Also, each ticket holder will be entitled to a free, complete physical examination at two mobile facilities set up on the festival grounds.

Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the gate. Security parking is available. The university is at 1730 E. 120th St., in Willowbrook.

Information: (213) 563-5850.

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Jazz on NPR: Federal cutbacks have taken their toll on a number of programs on National Public Radio, but, happily, not those that offer jazz. In fact, this year the network presents two new shows, “Wynton Marsalis: Making the Music” and “Billy Taylor’s Jazz at the Kennedy Center,” both 26-part series that debut Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. They will be carried in Los Angeles on KPCC-FM (89.3).

The goal of Marsalis’ show, said its host in a press release, “is to demystify jazz, to take away the stigma of it being for aficionados only. The series, which airs at 11 p.m. and features such guests as Lionel Hampton, Joe Williams and Gerry Mulligan, tackles such topics as “What Is Swing?,” “Jazz and the American Popular Song” and “Inside the Blues.”

Taylor’s program, taped before a live audience at Washington’s Kennedy Center, is an informal show. It features a guest artist such as Clark Terry--heard Thursday at 11 p.m.--or James Moody performing with Taylor’s trio, then taking questions from the house. Taylor said the shows have been a hit. “The audience has really responded,” he said. “It’s a way for them to be involved in the process of improvisation and repertoire with which the jazz musician is intimate.”

Two other long-standing NPR jazz programs will also be heard on KPCC: Marion McPartland’s “Piano Jazz,” which is heard Thursdays at 10 p.m.; and “Jazzset With Branford Marsalis,” airing Tuesdays at 10 p.m., starting Oct. 10.

Information: (818) 585-7000.

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Mercer Feted: Stephanie Haynes, Jack Prather and Dewey Erney are among those offering a salute in song to the great lyricist Johnny Mercer in a show on Monday, 6:30 and 8:30 p.m., at DiMario’s, 17 Monarch Bay Plaza, Dana Point.

Information: (714) 240-9436.

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Free Jazz: The Watts Tower Jazz Festival, held Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Towers, 1727 E. 107th St., features Gerald Wilson, Susie Hansen, Bobby Matos, Billy Childs, Nedra Wheeler and others, (213) 847-4646.

Be-bop pianist Frank Strazzeri’s quartet holds forth tonight, 5:30 p.m., at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, (213) 857-6000.

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Weekend Bash: System M’s 8th annual Day of Music will be held Saturday, 2 p.m. to 2 a.m., in several venues in downtown Long Beach, among them System M, 213-A Pine St. Among the acts on tap: Vinny Golia, B Sharp Jazz Quartet, Black/Note Horace Tapscott and the Al Williams Jazz Society.

Information: (310) 435-2525