"This year musicians are beginning to approach us, instead of the other way around, asking if they can be in the festival," said Tidaback. He already feels as if his event is bursting at the seams.

Statistically speaking, the third annual Jazz-A-Thon has three times as many bands - 42 of them - as the first one and runs three times as long. Tomorrow at 7 p.m. the weekend festival opens with a four-band concert tribute to Duke Ellington and keeps right on going with full schedules of events Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday evening tribute is to Count Basie. Sunday evening is billed as a Big Band Marathon.

All the bands will take turns in the Nation's Hall at the Muse Community Arts Center, 516 N. Fifth Ave. It will be a busy place, with 19 bands set for Saturday and 18 more on Sunday. Plus supervised four-hour jam sessions Saturday and Sunday afternoons, in another part of the Muse center, for musicians and fans who just can't get enough. Workshops and a wide-screen TV playing rare jazz videos are also part of the fun.

"The Jazz-A-thon is our opportunity to showcase the talent of Tucson players and others, from middle school to the professional level, in a non-competitive environment," Tidaback explained. He sounded a lot like Jim Griffith when Griffith was just getting Tucson Meet Yourself up and running some 30 years ago.

Griffith thought Tucsonans would want to know about all the different cultural groups living in our Southwestern town. Tidaback feels the same way about all the different jazzers who make Tucson home.

It is the personal joy of playing jazz that Tidaback wants to celebrate, not the expertise of a handful of famous players. In fact, there aren't any celebrity jazz names appearing at this event. The music itself will be the star.

Which isn't to say there aren't some remarkable players involved. Out-of-towners include saxophonist Ed Peterson, director of jazz studies at the University of New Orleans. He'll be sitting in with Tucson's own 18-piece repertory big band the Arizona Jazz Orchestra.

Coming down from Phoenix are Arizona State University jazz educator-players Mike Kocour, piano, and Mike Crotty, who doubles on sax and trumpet, the ASU Jazz Band and Phoenix City College jazz band. Joining them are Scottsdale's Arizona Big Band and jazz singer Dennis Rowland, no stranger to Tucson's dedicated jazz audience. Rowland will be backed by the AJO.

When he isn't putting on the festival, Tidaback's day job is running the Arizona Jazz Academy, which he also started. While the Jazz-A-Thon is a showcase for all the academy's student bands, it's also a chance to hear area jazz educators air out their own talents. Representing the academy are the AJA Ellington Band, the AJA Basie Band, a band with the Motown sound called Big Daddy Sun and the Outer Planets and various other ensembles. See the schedule for a complete list.

Getting all those teachers and learners together in one spot should really have the fermentation percolating.

"The jazz academy was always an important part of my development as a performer," said Brett Ryan, an Arizona Jazz Academy alum. He graduated from Catalina Foothills High School in 2002 and headed straight to New York. In between were six important weeks when he held down the baritone sax chair every night for the touring Glenn Miller big band.

"I couldn't have done that without the experience of playing in the academy's bands," said Ryan, on the phone from New York. He's coming home to play in the Jazz-A-Thon's Sunday night showcase. On April 5 he will also premiere a one-man performance piece at the Mat Bevel Institute, 530 N. Stone Ave.

Malik Alkabir grew up in the Philadelphia area. He remembers what it was like to walk down a street near his home and hear several different jazz groups playing at neighborhood nightclubs. Jazz was in the air. There was a music industry in Philadelphia that could provide professional musicians with a responsible lifestyle.

"Obviously, that music industry doesn't exist out here," said Alkabir. "There aren't many places locally where young people can go to hear jazz. And even when there is, there is no public transportation in the evenings to get them there."

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