Music and education have gone hand-in-hand for jazz drummer Joe Pulice since he was a youngster, hanging out at his parents' music store at the corner of Goold and LaSalle streets.

Since moving to Minneapolis to attend college in the late 1970s, Pulice (son of Joe Sr., local drummer and teacher) has made a name for himself as in-demand drummer/percussionist, as well as an educator, in the Twin Cities and beyond.

An assistant school principal by day, he plays a variety of evening jazz gigs, as well as with Broadway shows that come through town. And through the years Pulice - known best to Racinians as Joey - has worked with musical greats from Stan Getz and Slide Hampton to Aretha Franklin and Harry Connick Jr., as well as having toured with Woody Herman's band on its 50th Anniversary Tour.

This week, the Horlick High School graduate will bring all of that experience back home to share with middle and high school students from throughout southeastern Wisconsin at the Third Annual Woody Herman Educational Jazz Workshop, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Pulice will be the guest clinician for the workshop, which runs Thursday through Saturday. And, he will be a featured performer in the workshop's public concert, which will take place at UWM's Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday night. The concert will also feature the UWM Jazz Ensemble and the UWM Youth Jazz Ensembles.

Saturday's concert, as well as a gig he will play Friday night at Milwaukee's Jazz Estate (http://www.jazzestate.com) are rare opportunities for folks in southeastern Wisconsin to hear the younger Pulice play. The drummer said he is especially pleased that his parents will be in the audience, adding that his father has been a huge influence on his musical career.

"My dad is a great teacher and a great drummer and I'm excited that he will be there," he said in a recent phone interview. "Everything I play are things he taught me."

The younger Pulice's main purpose in coming back to Wisconsin this time, though, is to work with young jazz musicians at the workshop, which is run by another Racine musician, saxophonist Curt Hanrahan.

Hanrahan, who in addition to teaching at Racine's Lakeshore Conservatory of Music is the director of Jazz Studies at UWM, created the Woody Herman Educational Jazz Workshop several years ago in an effort to bring back what he says was Herman's generosity in sharing his skills and knowledge with aspiring jazz musicians. In addition to spending 50 years on the road as a band leader, the clarinetist established educational and scholarship opportunities for budding jazz musicians which he participated in for many years, Hanrahan said.

"He was almost like a school unto himself," he said. "A lot of people don't know about that aspect of Woody."