Jerry Ford will bring his German band to the festival

In keeping with the spirit of the Craft Beer Festival, prominent community figure and local jazz musician Jerry Ford will bring his German band to provide traditional music to set the mood at the festival.

He honed his skills as a teenager playing for the area's dinner clubs and their surreptitiously affiliated gambling clubs such as the Purple Crackle and the Colony Club.

At one time, he was offered fourth chair in Harry James' 18-piece orchestra. He said he intended to take the position until his father, who was Cape Girardeau's mayor for some time, gave him a stern rebuff.

That didn't stop him from playing, though.

"That's where I get my joy," he said. "Jazz is the major gift to the world from America. It's creative; you're expressing your thoughts and your values, and every time you play it, it's a little bit different."

Jerry Ford Orchestra

Ford plays regularly all over the area with several incarnations of his band's lineup, from jazz orchestra to a Dixieland setup to a patriotic brass band. He said playing in Cape Girardeau is especially fulfilling.

"Every university town has a beat, has a rhythm," he said. "Everything comes in terms of beats and rhythm. It's the music."

Though he usually plays "dance jazz, a step up from bebop," he said his goal is to give the audience what they came to hear. Attendees at the third annual Cape Girardeau Craft Beer Festival have ostensibly come to have a good time, and he said he's looking forward to it.

"We're not a jazz orchestra; we're a dance orchestra," he said. "We'll make 'em feel good. Give 'em a little of the razzamatazz."

tgraef@semissourian.com