The only seminal music theorist to perish in the World Trade Center tragedy, Steamort Sutz, was recently awarded the prestigious Onnawonnapottawotta Medal by the Pasta Fazool Society of Beverly Hills—the first time that honor has been bestowed posthumously.

“People think I got it all from some supermarket in Dubuque or a Mantovani album speeded up and tweaked through a bunch of bullshit electronica,” says Dave Koz, who studied with Sutz at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Music. “But giving credit where due, I must say about 85 percent of what I know and do stems from classes I took with Steamort, both in arrangement and saxophonology. He will be sorely missed.”

A charter member of the Smooth Jazz Hall of Fame, Dr. Sutz also taught a veritable who’s who of frontline SJ’ers: Najee, Boney James, Kenny G, Keiko Matsui, David Benoit, Brian Culbertson, Milton “Hap the Hippo” Feffensneffer, and Darius Milhaud . . . like

dig it.

Dave Koz & Friends play the Temple Theatre in Tacoma at 8 p.m. Tues., Dec. 3. $50-$60.