Ninth grader P.J. Colino, who plays alto sax and clarinet in the Seattle Academy Jazz Ensemble, is our guest student DJ for December.

Mercer Island High School has a remarkable jazz orchestra, so we were very much looking forward to this live distillation of that band—the Mercer Island Jazz Combo. You’ll hear the students on saxophone, trombone, bass, drums and piano. Their mentor, Thomas Marriott is the featured trumpet player. This live KNKX Studio Session is hosted by our own Mary McCann. Hit ‘play.’ https://youtu.be/KU35uukcDyc

Meet 16-year-old Dakota Huffman, who hails from Maple Valley and plays in the Tahoma High School jazz band.

Fourteen-year-old Emma Usui-Villareal is our very first middle school student DJ, and she already possesses a very discerning jazz sensibility. Emma plays drums in the Eckstein Middle School jazz band.

Named for their practice room at Pacific Lutheran University, 322 brought 4 of their 5 band members to the knkx studios for an afternoon of cool tunes they wrote themselves. Drawing on their jazz education in standards to the wide variety of music available to college kids, the band clearly finds as much inspiration from modern rock 'n' soul as they do the Great American Songbook.

Note: Each month, knkx invites a teen guest DJ to play his or her favorite pieces on the air. The program is part of knkx's School of Jazz . Dimitrio Nero from Mountlake Terrace High School is the Student DJ for the month of September. Dimitrio's hour aired from 8 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 8. To get to know him better, we asked Dimitrio to answer a few questions about jazz: Which instrument do you play and why?

Note: Each month, KPLU invites a teen guest DJ to play his or her favorite pieces on the air. The program is part of KPLU's School of Jazz . Brad Bjorn from Tahoma High School is the Student DJ for the month of August. Brad's hour aired from 8 to 9 p.m. on August 4th. To get to know him better, we asked Brad to answer a few questions about jazz: Which instrument do you play and why?

Puget Sound Community School is a private school with just 53 students. So the school’s excellent jazz studies program only has a few participants. So few, in fact, that the instructors often have to serve as performers, just to round things out. But don’t let numbers fool you. The group is small but mighty. For this studio session, the all-star trio enlisted D’Vonne Lewis, one of the West Coast’s hottest jazz drummers, as their mentor and drummer. The result was stunning. From the hypnotic

Note: Each month, KPLU invites a teen guest DJ to play his or her favorite pieces on the air. The program is part of KPLU's School of Jazz . Anton Bingham from Shorecrest High School is the Student DJ for the month of July. Anton's hour aired from 8 to 9 p.m. on July 7. To get to know him better, we asked Anton to answer a few questions about jazz: Which instrument do you play and why?

The all-stars from the Mountlake Terrace High School jazz band were well-prepared for their live session in the KPLU studios, so well prepared, in fact, that their mentor, Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra saxophonist Travis Ranney, said all he had to do was show up. Swinging through a pair of standards, the septet of kids also brought an arrangement of the very cool modern jazz tune, “Tall & Lanky” by Jeff Coffin to show off their own two-sax and a trombone front line. It was a fantastic