Bellson returns to Rock Falls for festival

ROCK FALLS - Drummer Louie Bellson's resume of musicians he's either recorded or performed with reads like a Who's Who of the entire genre of jazz, and so do the venues where he's performed. But this weekend, the man Duke Ellington once called "the world's greatest musician" will return to his hometown for the annual Louie Bellson Heritage Days festival. The 84-year-old's first claim to fame came at 17, when he won the Gene Krupa drumming contest, beating out more than 40,000 other drummers. Since then, his talent has taken him around the world, playing with jazz heavyweights such as Dizzy Gillespie, Louie Armstrong, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald, as well as James Brown, Mel Torme, and his late wife, Pearl Bailey. This weekend will boast