Milt Hinton

It's a busy year for Teddy Edwards, the Jackson, Miss., native who's been a stalwart of the Los Angeles jazz community for more than four decades. Trips to Europe, festivals in the United States and a steady stream of local engagements make up the reliable, never-far-from-the-blues tenorman's current schedule. He plays Sunday at Santa Monica Folk and Jazz '90, on the Bay City's 3rd Street Promenade, and then flies back to Mississippi on Thursday. "I'm going to Woodville, Miss.

Labor Day weekend traditionally has been the time when the jazz epicenter of the universe can be found in Colorado. From noon Saturday until late Monday, more than 50 jazz artists, most of them world class, and more than 500 fans were ensconced in the Hyatt Regency, where Dick Gibson presented his 29th annual jazz party. Though formality may reign in the ballroom where the 32 hours of jamming takes place (Sunday evening is always black tie), the ambience on the bandstand is totally loose.

At long last, 18 years after his death, the life and times and gifts of Louis Armstrong have been intelligently recorded. "Satchmo," the 90-minute "American Masters" program to be seen tonight at 9 on Channels 28 and 15, leaves no aspect of his personality unexamined. Even his real birth date (Aug. 4, 1901, not July 4, 1900, as he had always claimed) is documented by the church record.

Electric guitarist Jesse van Ruller and acoustic bassist Darryl Hall won top honors in their respective categories this week at the ninth annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition held at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Each received first-place prizes of $10,000 in cash and scholarships. Van Ruller of the Netherlands and Hall from New Jersey each won out over a group of nine musicians that had been narrowed to three finalists for Monday's final event.

It's hard to imagine a more idyllic setting for jazz than the Hyatt Newporter's outdoor amphitheater with the sun setting over Newport Bay and the stars popping out overhead. That will be the scene Friday evenings this summer as KLON-FM and the Hyatt Newporter are hosts for a weekly concert series dubbed "Jazz Live at the Hyatt." The 10-concert lineup leans heavily on performers from the world of swing.

By most accounts, the horn--or the French horn as non-players continue to call the gracefully circular, beautifully toned piece of brass--is the most difficult of instruments to master. But not according to Richard Todd, the principal horn player of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, who will lead his jazz quartet Saturday at Orange Coast Community College in Costa Mesa.

It's a scene played a thousand times: An intoxicated nightclub patron asks the piano bar performer to sing "Melancholy Baby." But when fate played it out for pianist/singer Shirley Horn, the event provided her with a new career. Horn was a 17-year-old Howard University student--"I lied about my age"--working nights at the prestigious Merryland Club, a supper club in her hometown of Washington, D.C. "I was just playing the piano at first," she said recently.

Dick Gibson, the amiable host through three decades of world-famous jazz concerts in which he offered the best musicians in the world in a single venue each Labor Day weekend, has died. Gibson, who was forced to give up his unique concept of 32 hours of mainstream jamming several years ago because of health and financial problems, was 72 when he died Wednesday of complications of diabetes.

Kenny Davern, a clarinetist and soprano saxophonist who became an acclaimed torchbearer of traditional jazz and swing, died Tuesday at his home in Sandia Park, N.M., after a heart attack. He was 71. Davern was regarded as a virtuosic musician. He was particularly renowned for his lyrical and expressive clarinet style: "a chilling upper register, a rounded, woody tone and a hint of Pee Wee Russell's rasp," jazz critic W. Royal Stokes wrote.

The Classic Jazz Festival, which began celebrating its 10th anniversary Friday and continues through today, has expanded on several levels over the years. It is now divided between two venues, the LAX-area Marriott and Westin hotels. According to producer Chuck Conklin, it involves more than 300 musicians and attracts up to 5,000 fans a day. As was evident from the first day, the event has edged its way from the far right of the jazz spectrum to closer to the center.