LaRosa's America's Youngest Jazz Band Still Swinging

It is apparent Sonny LaRosa does not like to be interviewed. He hands a reporter a sheaf of clippings.

"It's all there," he says, noting that reporters always ask the same questions.

The 82-year-old LaRosa can be forgiven. As founder of America's Youngest Jazz Band, a group of Suncoast 4- to 13-year-olds who know how to make sweet notes on trumpets, saxophones and other instruments in the style of the Big Band era, he has had to contend with nosey reporters for 30 years.

That comes with being good at what you do. Over the years LaRosa and his youngsters have knocked the socks off of audiences and critics, including famed music critic Nat Hentoff, who retired from the Village Voice this year after 50 years on the job.

Hentoff included a chapter in his book "American Music Is" about LaRosa and his young band. The writer also mentioned them during an appearance on one of the citadels of the American jazz scene, the National Public Radio program "Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz."

LaRosa's youngsters have played at a raft of venues, including New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, "The Today Show" on NBC, and Preservation Hall in New Orleans, where they were the youngest players ever to do so.

New Yorker LaRosa went on the road at 18 as a trumpet player but found his true calling in teaching when the big band era died. "I studied to be the greatest trumpet player in the world," he says. "They've told me I was the greatest teacher in the world."

LaRosa is sponsoring a concert as a fundraiser featuring his young musicians at the Dunedin Community Center next weekend, Saturday, Feb. 28. This is the first concert he has ever sponsored.

La Rosa always promises his musicians one jazz festival a year. He has a couple of Los Angeles festivals in mind as possibilities for this year.

"The kids don't pay a dime," he notes. In these tough economic times, he wants to be sure he can keep his word, and so he organized the Dunedin concert.

On the Suncoast, the band often performs for large audiences whose members are old enough to remember the oldies. "They go crazy over the kids," said LaRosa. "They cry and everything else."

Two of LaRosa's former students have hit the big time. Last year, saxophonist Eric Darius was invited to follow in the foot steps of jazz sax great like John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter and record on the prestigious Blue Note record label. Saxophonist Dayve Stewart appeared with Al Green on "The Tonight Show" and has toured with the legendary soul singer.

During a recent practice session, young musicians from Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties appeared just as familiar with LaRosa's arrangements of "Satin Doll," "Stormy Weather," "Tuxedo Junction" and other favorites as the latest hip-hop music. Almost all of the younger players took instrumental or vocal solos or both.

Jason Charos, 9, has been studying with LaRosa since he was 5. Jason plays the trumpet and also is a talented vocalist. He knew nothing about music when he began, he remembers. He likes rap, Jason notes, but he prefers jazz. "I understand it better."

Quin Halpain, 11, gets off on performing. He most enjoys "to go out in front of all the crowds." He has studied with LaRosa for two years. "I think I've learned more in the two years I've been with him than I learned in five years of regular school," he says.

Mom Viki Prescott drives her son Luke, 11, from Tampa for his private lessons with LaRosa before the practice sessions. "He'll say, 'You can do it. This is the best band of its kind in the world,'" she explains about LaRosa. "He says that all the time. The kids just rise to the occasion."

America's Youngest Jazz Band will perform at 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 28, at Dunedin Community Center, 1920 Pinehurst Road, Dunedin. Tickets are $10 and are available at the door. Children under 12 are free. For more information on joining the band, call 727-725-1788. For more information on the band, go to www.sonnylarosa.com.