Wheeling High jazz band performs with Marsalis

The Wheeling High School jazz band played a rather high visibility gig Sunday. They were the opening act for acclaimed jazz musician Wynton Marsalis at McCormick Place in Chicago.

They played at the invitation of members of the National School Boards Association during its 30th annual national convention, and more than 5,000 people convened to hear Marsalis deliver his keynote address.

"He's about as big a jazz musician as there is on the planet," said Wheeling Band Director Brian Logan before they left. "To be hanging out with him on stage, even for a little while, is unbelievable."

They played three up-tempo swing charts, including one, "Perdido," recorded by Marsalis with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

"It's a little nerve-racking to realize that we're playing for the guy who originally recorded this music," said senior trumpet player Amy Bischoff of Wheeling. "But once you start playing, you know you've rehearsed it a million times. You just get in a zone and start groovin' and swinging. It's great."

Junior drummer Nate Lichtenberger held a special role during the gig. Working with the bass player and rhythm section, he made sure they kept up the pace and held the beat.

"We really have to kick the band," Lichtenberger said, "which, musically speaking, means we make sure they stay on tempo and make transitions to different styles smoothly."

Marsalis is an outspoken supporter of the arts, particularly of jazz education.

After cofounding a jazz program at the Lincoln Center in New York, he formed the famed "Jazz for Young People" concert series in 1993. Two years later, he started the "Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Program," which has reached more than 275,000 students in high schools across the country.

His Jazz for Young People curriculum reaches students across the country, and he even served on a panel with former President Bill Clinton to develop an early childhood program that incorporates jazz called "WeBop!"

Still, Wheeling's jazz band seems to personify what Marsalis tackled in his most recent book, "Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life."

Within the last year alone, Wheeling students have played on a world tour, so to speak, with performances in the Umbria and Florence jazz festivals in Italy and in the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, both held last summer.

They completed their tour in September with an invitation to play at the Chicago Jazz Festival at Grant Park.

The group has released five compact discs and won numerous awards, including their Class 3A title at the Jazz in the Meadows Festival in February.

"They're really playing well right now," Logan said. "It's been an incredible ride."

So incredible that Logan and other members of Wheeling's administration are making Marsalis' book one of this summer's reading selections for its ability to address life issues as much as it does jazz music.

Consequently, Marsalis will continue to influence Wheeling students long after Sunday's gig.