By Hilary Costa
For the Contra Costa Times

PITTSBURG — When some of East Contra Costa's premier student jazz musicians play their opening notes at Los Medanos College's year-end all-star jazz concert Saturday, they'll be in good company.

The concert, showcasing the jazz ensembles from Los Medanos and Brentwood's Heritage High School, also will feature four internationally acclaimed jazz artists who call the Bay Area home.

The guests are bassist Marcus Shelby, guitarist Mimi Fox, pianist and founder/director of Berkeley's Jazzschool Susan Muscarella and vocalist Jamie Davis, who may be best known for singing with the Count Basie Orchestra.

"It's going to be incredible," said Michael Zilber, director of the Los Medanos jazz program and conductor of the 25-member ensemble.

学生们表示同意。 Steve Ernest, who conducts the 23-member Heritage jazz ensemble, said his students' "eyes got big" when they heard the news, and they immediately went into preparation mode.

Most of the region's high school jazz ensembles have been invited to play with LMC's over the years. 这一次，遗产基金会的可用性最符合日程安排。

“这很酷，”欧内斯特说。 "One of my guitar players said, 'Mimi Fox is going to be there?’她脸上挂着灿烂的笑容。”

Fox, who heads the guitar department at the Jazzschool in Berkeley and is an adjunct professor at New York University, said she embraces the chance to mentor young musicians, particularly girls.

Fox said she grew up at a time when women were largely limited to singing jazz, not playing instruments, and she didn't have many female role models to look up to.

"As the years have gone on, (mentoring) has become something that really is important to me," said Fox, who also conducts college workshops when she goes on tour. "Obviously, I like spreading the gospel of jazz; 我喜欢看到孩子们对音乐着迷。”

Bringing professional musicians to LMC has become more common in the past few years, Zilber said. That's when the program's emphasis shifted significantly toward hiring player-teachers as part-time faculty. Today, the jazz program has six part-time professors and one working full time, Zilber.

And because many of the music faculty members are active in the Bay Area jazz scene, they have the connections to bring musicians like Saturday's guests to campus. So far, Zilber estimated that 10 professional musicians have played concerts with LMC students and faculty members.

At a time when budget cuts at all levels of education have put the arts on the chopping block, Zilber said it's more important than ever to recognize the lifelong benefits music can have for youths.

"The evidence is overwhelming that students who play musical instruments far outperform students who don't at every level of school," Zilber said. "It helps with language, math, teamwork, teaches you to get along with people. Many of the desirable traits that we want in our society, you learn through music."

And then there's the impact jazz, in particular, has had on culture around the world, he added.

"Many music and art professors say jazz is the single most important contribution the United States has made in the world. Our influence on the world has been felt more strongly through jazz and blues and rock 'n' roll than anything else we have done," he said.

如果你去

• WHAT: Year-end all-star jazz concert featuring the Heritage High School Jazz Ensemble and Los Medanos College Jazz Ensemble
• 时间：2010年5月15日星期六晚7点至10点
• 地点：洛斯梅达诺斯学院，2700 E.利兰路，匹兹堡
• 费用：普通门票10美元； 学生和老年人5美元。 For details and tickets, call 925-439-0200 or e-mail [email protected].
• 特别嘉宾：马库斯·谢尔比，苏珊·马斯卡雷拉，杰米·戴维斯，米米·福克斯