Fresh accolades for the legendary Natchez musician Clarence &uot;Bud&uot; Scott will dominate the coming week.

The Natchez Festival of Music will open its jazz events, dedicated to the memory of Scott, with a program about his life at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Museum of African-American History and Culture, 301 Main St.

For family member Dena Green, the tribute to Scott will be personal and joyful. &uot;I think he was a beautiful, astounding person. He was so gifted. He spread light everywhere he went. Everyone who spoke of him spoke with love.&uot;

Green, joined by Natchez historian Donald Estes, will present a program about her great-grandfather’s life, pulling from materials she has gathered in recent years since her return to Natchez from California.

Family stories tell of Scott’s early interest in music and dancing and of the first instrument he played &045;&045; a mandolin.

As he grew older, he turned to other stringed instruments, probably preferring the banjo to all others. Scott’s interest in music went beyond the instruments, however, as he began composing and arranging songs and gathering together other musicians to establish one of the most popular orchestras ever to play along the lower Mississippi River.

&uot;He wrote and composed music. He was a wonderful writer. He could sing and he could dance. He was a multi-instrumentalist. And it was all natural,&uot; Green said.

Estes, director of the Natchez City Cemetery, said the life of Bud Scott has been an interest of his for many years.

&uot;I’ve known about him all of my life. I’ve heard all the good stories,&uot; Estes said. &uot;When I came to the cemetery as director, one of the first things I did was paint his monument. And I made his grave site one of the stops on the very first night tour we did at the cemetery.&uot;

One of the most widely known stories about Scott is his relationship with Natchez Police Chief Mike Ryan, an ardent fan of the musician. Scott often played from the balcony of one of the downtown buildings. If the chief walked by and signaled to Scott, the musician took it as a cue to sing &uot;My Wild Irish Rose.&uot;

By the 1920s, Scott had enlarged his band and had been swept into the blooming age of jazz.

Edgar Simmons Jr. tells it best in an article written for the Natchez Times newspaper about 1940, several years after Scott’s death.

&uot;Bud Scott was a product of the sweat-drenched Dixie river towns, and jazz flowed out of his mouth and fingers, out of every wide pore of him, like honey out of a barrel. He played pure, foot-pattin’ Dixieland jazz like it’s on tape nowhere,&uot; Simmons wrote.

&uot;Bud sang on the galleried second story of the Natchez Confectionary on summer nights with a megaphone that his ham-like hand nearly swallowed. The gallery seemed to hang in the night sky and it dripped with the evening dew.&uot;

Green said she and other family members are thrilled that Scott will be the honoree during the upcoming jazz week. &uot;My family is ecstatic that he will be honored now,&uot; she said. &uot;It’s wonderful to know people appreciate what he gave.&uot;