But in any music scene, there will always be certain individuals who seem to generate more activity than others. These are the dynamos that drive music forward and create playing (and earning) opportunities for themselves and their fellow musicians. Dublin drummer Kevin Brady is one of those and his latest venture is a bit of selfhelp that will bring good music to parts of the country other promoters cannot reach.

Brady's drums are already the heartbeat of two of the Dublin scene's busiest and most successful trios, the Hammond organ group Organics, with organist Justin Carroll and guitarist John Moriarty, and the Phil Ware trio, featuring pianist Ware and bassist Dave Redmond.

Organics released their debut album last year and have now teamed up with saxophonist Richie Buckley, so Brady has a pretty busy year ahead anyway.

But not content with that, Brady has confounded the brainless stereotype of the drummer by setting up The Living Room Project, "to create a hub for Irish talent, enabling the artists to represent themselves and to encourage promoters from home and abroad to book Irish acts."

The project's founding members include many of the leading players and groups on the scene and promise a wealth of music over the coming year:

electric guru Roy Carroll's Trouble Penetrator is a group at the cutting edge of where jazz meets electronics; in contrast, Cortisol is an acoustic group taking its cue from the New York downtown scene which features young and rising talents like trombonist Colm O'Hara and bassist Andrew Csibi.

No one can blame Brady though if the first offering from the Living Room is one of his own projects. The drummer has been a long-time admirer of US pianist Bill Carrothers and he has managed to secure Arts Council funding to bring him to Ireland for a six-date nationwide tour.

Though he may not enjoy the highest of profiles on the international scene, Carrothers has played with some of the big names of his generation, including trumpeter Dave Douglas, as well as grandees of a previous generation like saxophonists Lee Konitz.

When Carrothers puts his own bands together, they generally feature bassist Drew Gress and drummer Bill Stewart, which is arguably one of the finest rhythm sections in New York. It was this trio, plus a few others, that recorded the 2003 album Armistice 1918 which has attracted much praise. Uniting Carrothers's twin passions of music and history, the album is a musical rumination on the futility of the first world war.

But Carrothers is anything but morbid. His approach to music is one of joyful exuberance, or as Brady offers, "completely nuts."

And a visit to the pianist's website certainly reveals a larger-than-life personality. As well as the usual biography, schedule and links to his CD releases, Carrothers has added a large collection of second world war posters, a love letter to Barry Manilow and footage of the artist's father landing a DC-10 at Minneapolis airport. As you do.

Bill Carrothers and the Kevin Brady trio begin their tour in JJ Smyths, Dublin on Saturday 20, and continue in UCC, Cork (22), Galway Jazz Club (23), Dolans, Limerick (24), Wexford Arts Centre (28) and the Mermaid, Bray (30).