Jazz musician Tom Tallitsch has lived in Hamilton for more than a decade and performs in Philadelphia and New York. (Photo courtesy of Tom Tallitsch.)

It’s a real estate agent’s refrain: Mercer County is conveniently located midway between Philadelphia and New York. But how many families actually find value in equidistance?

Tom Tallitsch’s has. The musician and his wife, Carrie Ellmore, a dancer, left Ohio for Philadelphia in 1996. But when Tallitsch’s reputation as a jazz saxophonist in Philadelphia began to grow, and Ellmore got an offer to work in New York, the refrain found a beneficiary. They settled in the White City section of Hamilton.

With three CDs to his name, Tallitsch can say he has forged a career in jazz. That’s not easy in 2010, when pop and hip-hop dominate the airwaves – and the clubs. Still, he plays gigs regularly while also hosting a weekly program on JazzOn2 HD radio. And he has a bustling practice as a roving jazz instructor.

So Tallitsch, 36, admits when people ask him if he’s made it, he isn’t sure he knows what that means.

“I really believe at this point, I’ve been making it for awhile,” said the Cleveland native one day last month over coffee. “I’m making a good living. I play every week, whether it’s in Philly or New York. But it’s really hard today to perform and tour, with the nature of media now, where you can watch so much in your house, on YouTube, and all that stuff. People don’t come out as much to hear music.”

His first CD, Duality, was a self-produced effort recorded in part at Holy Trinity Church in Lawrence in 2005. It features Tallitsch and guitarist Dave Manley as a duo, so might remind listeners of the collaborations of Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd, but it isn’t samba. It’s unmistakably contemporary, and good, something an aficionado can enjoy. Yet getting exposure on the radio is difficult.

That’s one reason he sees JazzOn2 as a means to help musicians like himself get crucial exposure. The two-year-old, under-the-radar radio station is called JazzOn2 because it’s broadcast on WWFM 89.1 HD2, a channel that is available only to those who have HD radios.

The station is operated by Mercer County Community College’s WWFM and a dedicated staff of volunteers, including Tallitsch, whose “Modern Jazz Radio Show” airs Thursday from 8 to 10 p.m.

“A lot of the people who love jazz music are jazz musicians,” he said. “The general public knows about jazz music, but it’s always fun to try to introduce them to new stuff, and that’s what I love about my radio show.”

He plays mostly music recorded in the last 10 years, by musicians like Sam Yahel, Seamus Blake and Uri Caine. By posting his playlists online and making the shows available online as podcasts, Tallitsch is doing what he can to keep jazz cool.

“There’s stuff I listen to that I think is just the best stuff on the planet, that even a rock and roll guitarist might not have heard,” he said.

He’s also spending regular time in the studio. His most recent, album, Perspective, came out last fall, his second effort on the OA2 Records label, following 2008’s Medicine Man. He plans to make another CD before the end of the year.

“If you don’t record, your stuff won’t get out there,” he said. “You have to continue to record because that’s what people want. They’ll put one song on their iPod and put that in their rotation, moreso than going out.”

Formerly an instructor Mercer County Community College and The Westminster Conservatory, Tallitsch keeps busy these days tutoring kids to play piano, saxophone, flute and clarinet. He has clients from throughout Mercer County, though he finds the majority of his students live in Princeton. Around six years ago, he received a call from someone at the Princeton Child Development Institute, asking if he would teach adult students to play the piano.

Now he’s there two days a week to teach children. He works in tandem with counselors who help with behavioral issues and to ease communication. Tallitsch said if anything, working with autistic students has given him perspective.

“It’s taught me patience, taught me how to be more positive,” he said. “You can’t [go] into a lesson with an autistic students and tell them not to do something, because that’s all they’re going to do. So you have to learn how to correct errors by giving them the correct thing to do, and have them repetitiously do the correct behavior which cancels out the incorrect behavior.”

To find out when Tom Tallitsch will be playing live music, to buy his CDs or to get more information about private tutoring, go online to his website, www.tomtallitsch.com.