Ever since I started writing about jazz, I’ve heard the recurring—and baseless—obbligato that jazz will soon be on life support. However, there is always the need to nurture new audiences, and players. Accordingly, the most exemplary project of Jazz at Lincoln Center is the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition, now in its seventh year and newly extended to Australia with Essentially Ellington Down Under. Wynton Marsalis should take note that among these student instrumentalists challenged by Duke’s scores there are many very proficient young women. Maybe Wynton will eventually offer one of them a chair in his male ensemble.

But with regard to the future of jazz, there is one solo educator—without any of the organizational and financial resources of Jazz at Lincoln Center—who deserves much more attention, and emulation. Sonny LaRosa, formerly a trumpet player with Sam Donahue, among others, is the director, arranger and nurturer of America’s Youngest Jazz Band. It’s a big band and the players are from six to 12 years old. The band has existed for 23 years, but I first heard them last year at a four-day, annual March of Jazz party in Clearwater Beach, Fla., celebrating the 74th birthday of stubbornly youthful Ruby Braff.

The kids hit at nine in the morning, before some of the late-night revelers were ready for more. And as I also thought, “How much can kids say on their horns? Or swing?” But I was curious. As I later wrote in The Wall Street Journal, I was jolted by the band’s impact in its opener, “Bugle Call Rag.” This was jubilant, foot-tapping swinging. As the set went on, I noted, “They not only knew how to swing collectively, but the soloists could tell a story. A story limited by their brief experience in music and life but nonetheless theirs.”

America’s Youngest Jazz Band has joyously surprised other listeners at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, various American festivals and was probably the youngest band to perform at Preservation Hall in New Orleans during the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. For reasons I cannot understand, it has yet to be invited to play, of all places, at the annual assembly of International Association for Jazz Education, nor has George Wein ever invited the band to play at any of his festivals.

Writing the liner notes for the band’s newest CD, Live at March of Jazz 2002, I quoted from St. Petersburg Times reporter Lane DeGregory’s explanation of how Sonny LaRosa brings along his lively jazz apprentices: “Sonny arranges all the songs himself. He writes each part out by hand, for every instrument, individualizing the approach to each musician’s ability (or lack thereof). He draws the notes in black marker. The fingerings beneath, in red. And he pencils the chord names in on top. He knows which kids can hold a long low C and who can hit a high F. He knows whose arms have grown enough to extend a trombone slide and who still needs help counting.”

I remember, years ago, Duke Ellington telling me why the scores in his orchestra were not headed “first trumpet,” “second trombone,” etc. Instead they usually had the names of each player. “I know the strengths and weaknesses of these musicians,” Duke said, “and I write with that information in mind.” But later, he told me, somewhat ruefully, “Now the younger ones coming into the band can play anything.”

So will Sonny LaRosa’s alumni. As the March 1999 Mississippi Rag reported: “It takes about two years of lessons to break in a new band member. Some who stay in the band until retirement at age 13 often beg to stay ‘just one more year.’ The 12-year-old limit is imposed to keep the band as young as possible.”

Sonny is a vigorous 76, and I think these kids keep him that way. David Liebman, a player of first-class musicianship, says: “Sonny LaRosa should be given the Medal of Freedom. Not only has he taught them each on their own instruments, but he has molded them into a truly remarkable unit. When you see the pride that is reflected in these youngsters’ faces and the way they stand tall to strut their stuff—this gives you hope for the future of culture and the arts in this country.” And, of course, the future of jazz.

I write this in the hope that other veterans of big bands will devote themselves to this fruitful way to keep the music alive. I can still see and hear these kids swinging into “One O’Clock Jump”—in their red jackets, black pants, white shirts\ and bow ties, flourishing their instruments from side to side like the bands of my youth in the stage shows between movies. These youngsters are not playing at jazz, they herald the jazz to come. For information about the band’s CDs and how to book the band, Sonny LaRosa is at 1129 Pelican Place, Safety Harbor, FL 34695. Phone: 727-725-1788; www.sonnylarosa.com; e-mail: sonny@sonnylarosa.com.

When I was a 14-year-old clarinetist, Ruby Braff, a year younger, invited me to a session at his home. As soon he began to play, I gave up fantasizing I’d ever be on the road with anybody. But maybe, if a Sonny LaRosa had been there....