Fundraiser concert for David Walters

Thursday, for the third time, Rhythm & Brews will host a fundraiser for longtime local jazz pianist and teacher David Walters. But this time, for the first time, he’ll be part of the lineup.

Walters, a member of UTC’s piano faculty and former Riverbend performer, will be joined by the rest of the David Walters Trio — Gordy Nichols (bass) and Jo Whitaker (drums) — as well as local pop/jazz songstress Kathy Tugman, also a Riverbend veteran.

The show will be divided in half between sets of jazz music and more contemporary pop/rock/spiritual selections from a diverse selection of artists from U2 to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Proceeds from ticket and album sales will help pay for medical expenses Walters incurred while receiving treatment and an eventual liver transplant to overcome an autoimmune disease that left him unable to play for two and a half years.

Throughout his ordeal, the outpouring of support, both financial and emotional, from the community has been overwhelming, he said.

“I’ve been amazed from the beginning by the response from when I started going downhill about three years ago,” he said. “I haven’t been able to thank everyone as fully as I would like because there have been so many people to thank.”

Tugman and her husband/executive producer, David Tugman, have helped organize three fundraisers since August 2006 and are collaborating with Walters for Tugman’s eighth album.

Although they worried for a while that Walters might not win his struggle against the disease, the Tugmans said it’s amazing to see how far he’s come.

“It was touch and go, and we worried that he’d waited so long that we were going to lose him,” Kathy Tugman said. “He’s certainly a courageous man.”