In 1990
Crews joined the faculty of the University of Louisville as professor
of Class Piano, Jazz Combos and Jazz Piano. Additionally, he is a
former President of the UofL School of Music Alumni Association. The
Kentucky Arts Council awarded him an Al Smith
Artists’ Fellowship for composition in 1994. Crews was
selected as a member of the Leadership Kentucky
Class of 1999. He is currently a free-lance musician and
composer. The premiere of the CD "Venturing Forth" (consisting
of jazz standards and original compositions) marks his first recording
effort.
Crews’
performances have taken him from Perm, Russia, where he performed
duets at the International Jazz Festival
("Rain Star"), to Cork, Ireland’s Guinness
Jazz Festival, where he appeared as soloist. In May
of 1997 he participated in a concert tour of England and Wales with
the U of L Jazz Ensemble, presenting jazz clinics and performances.
In October of 2000 Crews traveled to Japan, visiting Nagoya, Kyoto
and Tahara, in a tour conducted by Leadership
Kentucky.
From
1987 to 1993 he arranged, composed and performed four silent movie
scores for Actor’s Theatre of Louisville
Classics in Context Festivals. Having often performed
as a member of the Louisville Orchestra
and Super Pops since 1976, he
was a featured soloist in March 1989 with the Louisville Super Pops.
In November of 1998 Crews played George Gershwin’s "Rhapsody
in Blue"
with the University of Louisville Wind
Symphony.
Founder
and pianist of the jazz quartet "Soundchaser,"
Crews has appeared often in local and regional events. His trio
was showcased in February of 2000 at the Kentucky
Center for the Arts’ Cabaret series. His arrangement
of The Judy Dances for
jazz quintet was an acclaimed 1986 Louisville
Ballet premiere. Throughout the 1990’s he was on the faculty
of the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops
in Chicago and Louisville. Crews has served on the Board of the Louisville
Jazz Society since 1984.
His hobbies
range in interest from flying (having earned his VFR pilot’s license
in 1985) to local history, being a charter member of the Louisville
Historical League. He is a committed tennis duffer, currently a member
of the Dupont Racquet Club.
In 1990
he married Debbie Shannon, a bookmaker and visual artist, who is the
Director of Education at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. They live
in the Clifton neighborhood, sharing a hundred-year-old frame house,
next to the CSX tracks, with their four "totally crazy"
cats. One of these furry felines, Leena, is the star of "Venturing
Forth’s" cover.
