Jake Hertzog five years later. Photo from jakehertzog.com (click for another view)

Multimedia note: Watch Jake Hertzog play a variety of guitar styles — including jazz, R&B, and funk — in this promotional DVD.

URBANA — Just five years removed from Uni High, guitarist Jake Hertzog has already carved a career path for himself in the notoriously difficult music business.

The 2003 Uni graduate will return to C-U this weekend to play at the 33rd Urbana Sweetcorn Festival. Hertzog and jazz trio members Chris Nolte and Brent Jordan will perform from 7 to 10 p.m. on the Busey-sponsored stage.

Hertzog, a 2007 graduate of the Berklee School of Music in Boston, now lives in Queens, N.Y. When he's not working as a music director for the popular Nickelodeon TV show "The Naked Brothers Band," he is recording his own compositions and playing with some of the top jazz musicians in the world.

In 2006 he was grand-prize winner of the Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition, held at the Montreux Jazz Festival. His albums "Rate of Ascension" (2005) and "Expressions" (2006) are available at iTunes.

Hertzog will be quite busy during his return to C-U. Besides his performance Saturday, he will spend Friday on a media blitz, starting with a 7:15 a.m. appearance on WCIA-TV's "Morning Show." He will follow that with radio appearances on Mix 94.5 WLRW-FM (7:50 a.m.), 100.3 WIXY-FM (8:15 a.m.), and 1400 WDWS-AM (4 p.m.) — and at some point he will do an interview with the Online Gargoyle's entertainment editors, Sindha Agha and Laura Dripps.

This won't be the first time Hertzog has been profiled by the Gargoyle. In December 2002 the print Gargoyle ran an article about the rising star, then a senior who had already attracted a following in the local music scene.

"During the next couple of years I want to see if I have something different that puts me apart from other guitar players," Hertzog told classmate Sarah Klein, a Gargoyle editor.

"I've always heard that you shouldn't be a musician because you want to, but because you have to. And I have to. I am driven on because of my love of music, guitar, and my will to never give up."