Musicians

"When we lose a member of our tribe, we don't mourn, we celebrate, and we make a lot of racket," Dave Alvin said at the outset of a 3 1/2-hour tribute to the late violinist, singer and songwriter Amy Farris on Sunday night at McCabe's in Santa Monica. The event, which Alvin hosted, featured some of the most revered members of the L.A. roots music scene including veteran singer-songwriters Peter Case, Stan Ridgway, Rick Shea and the trio I See Hawks in L.A. The musicians played on a stage outfitted with a piano bench adorned with candles, flowers and photos of the Texas-born Farris, who died on Sept.

Ask her nicely and Lisa Haley might tell you exactly how to eat a crawfish. After all, it's been hot lately and the effervescent leader of the Zydekats, an L.A.-based Cajun quintet, has been adding a spicy dash of authentic gumbo to the steamy weather. "Cheer up everybody!" she whooped in her one-of-a-kind corn bread voice during the recent outdoor concert in Universal City. "It's a lot hotter back in Louisiana!"

Mickey Hart has spent virtually his entire adult life drumming for the Grateful Dead. When he joined the group in 1967, he was barely out of his teens. Still, he laughs at the notion that he might have felt a little rudderless a year ago when the death of Jerry Garcia led to the dissolution of the beloved hippie band. It seems that life after the Dead has actually been quite busy for the percussionist, as a former side project has become his primary musical focus.

The back cover of Todd Snider's latest CD, "Step Right Up," shows a Grateful Dead logo, a peace sign, a yin-yang symbol, bumper stickers with such slogans as "Truck Naked!" and "Only Users Lose Drugs." You get the picture: indications that Todd's a party boy with roots in the '60s and '70s. What the cover doesn't tell you is that the 29-year-old singer-songwriter--who plays Saturday at the Coach House--is among the most gifted pop musicians to come down the pike since Fogerty, Hiatt and Prine.

Even if you build a better mousetrap in pop music, there's no guarantee that the world will beat a path to your door. Ask Dave Alvin and Peter Case, who shared the bill on Friday night at the recently opened Ash Grove on the Santa Monica Pier. As members in the early '80s of two of the most stirring rock bands ever to come out of Los Angeles (the Blasters and the Plimsouls, respectively), Alvin and Case wrote marvelous songs that explored the human condition with conviction and heart.

Some of Johnny Copeland's fans might suggest that his intense but sophisticated blues singing and guitar playing are heroic on their own merits. But by the simple fact that he continues to play live, Copeland is heroic in another sense. The 59-year-old blues man has cardiomyopathy--a condition that requires a device to pump blood to his heart. But it's only a temporary aid; Copeland is in dire need of a transplant.

Outlined against a white stucco wall, rap artist Ice-T is crouched and ready, just waiting for a chance to steal something valuable. This move, however, has nothing to do with his criminal past. It's Nielsen ratings the man is after. "This isn't gonna be like any other show you've seen on TV. We're gonna do a lot of different things to keep people interested and tuned in," Ice-T says from his expansive Hollywood Hills home.

The birthday boy couldn't be there--at least not in the flesh--but they threw a great party for Jerry Garcia at the Ventura County Fairground's Seaside Park on Thursday, the day the Grateful Dead guitarist would have turned 54. This first of two Southern California stops for the Furthur Festival, a concert tour topped by bands featuring former Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, wasn't a recreation of the Dead, musically speaking. But the Deadheads didn't seem to mind.

In a way, bass great Ray Brown was raised on jazz parties, those three- or four-day events where a number of jazz aces get together and jam. Starting in 1948, when he was 22, Brown was a member of Jazz at the Philharmonic, an organized jam that was essentially the father of all jazz parties. J.A.T.P.