We know there'll be jazz at the Amphitheater this weekend.

First, a bit about Jamey Aebersold, Bobby Falk and the relevant musical facts. As a devotee of jazz, which I sense is a dying breed, it's good to see some of our Riverfront Amphitheater time devoted to the genre. The following was copied from from Develop New Albany's weekly e-mail.

New Albany's Jamey Aebersold Performs this weekend at the Riverfront Amphitheater

New Albany’s Internationally Famous Jazz Musician & Educator Jamey Aebersold will perform Saturday evening at 7:30pm at the New Albany Amphitheater.

Aebersold's "Play-A-Long" series of instructional books and CD collections, using the chord-scale system are an internationally renowned resource for jazz education. More than 126 of these collections have been published by Aebersold. Jamey is also a very talented pianist, bassist, and banjoist.

Aebersold has also run the "Summer Jazz Workshop" sessions at the University of Louisville. Many leading educators and performers have served as Workshop faculty. The week-long event is billed as a place to learn jazz through hands-on experience, and provides an intensive learning environment for musicians of widely varying ages and levels. The standard Workshop curriculum includes master classes, ear-training sessions, jazz theory classes from beginning to advanced, and concerts by faculty

Also performing this weekend: The Bobby Falk Band

The Bobby Falk Band is a progressive band that incorporates jazz elements with covers and originality, constantly trying to appeal to more diverse audiences.

The band leader Bobby Falk has been a jazz musician all his life, as a composer, drummer and percussionist. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Jazz Studies (Percussion emphasis) from the University of Louisville School of Music in 2005, which included jazz studies abroad in Brazil, and performance experience/recording with Lew Soloff, Phil Woods, Curtis Fuller, Lionel Hampton, John Fedchock, Kenny Werner, Jimmy Heath, Jerry Coker, Bob Mintzer, among others.

The Bobby Falk band will take the Amphitheater stage on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

This leads me to my second, subsidiary point, and a paragraph in the weekly e-blast from the Clark & Floyd Convention and Tourism Bureau, in which it was noted:

"The music starts both nights at 7 pm at the Riverfront Amphitheater. Local merchants and organizations will offer food and beverages including craft beers from the New Albanian Brewery."

Given that I've heard nothing about our beer there until now, I suspect this is a misprint; inquiries are being made, so in the meantime, I'll repeat publicly what I've told so many of you privately.

There cannot be a free market when it comes to alcoholic beverages. State liquor regulations apply, and beer vendors at venues like the Amphitheater must operate under a three-way catering regime. The playing field is tilted from the start, and certain licensees (i.e., two-ways) are unable to play so long as vendors must acquire the necessary permits.

Also, as importantly, the Amphitheater is City Hall's domain, and City Hall makes rules of its own. Consequently, the riverfront committee is charged with deciding who vends and who does not, subject to the state's rules and the city's directives.

NABC is happy to do business with these chosen vendors, and to assist them in buying beer from us for resale to a grateful public. We always are eager to help them understand the nature of the craft beer demographic and how serving it could help them make money, but as we do not know who the chosen vendors are, and remain unaware of the committee's overall vendor policies this year, there is little NABC can do except hope that vendors approach us with their requests.

For those many local consumers who have expressed annoyance with the absence of craft beer choice at this year's events, I thank you for your comments, and I repeat: Please make your feelings known to the vendors and the committee. As a consumer, your job is to make demand known, and to clearly indicate the factors that inform your purchasing power. The semi-free market will adapt, or not; it's as simple as that.

Thanks. I appreciate the feedback.