What better way to start the morning than hearing Jazz at Lincoln Center musicians playing Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train”?

For years, these jazz musicians have come to Poly to play for Grade 7 students in Chapel. The mission of Jazz at Lincoln Center is “to entertain, enrich, and expand a global community for jazz through performance, education, and advocacy.” The study of the evolution of American music fits right in with Poly’s Grade 7 study of American history and the Harlem Renaissance. During three musical sessions each academic year, jazz musicians demonstrate how music has given people in search of freedom and equality a voice. That might be the development of jazz in New Orleans, rent party songs of the Harlem Renaissance, or the story behind a haunting Billie Holiday vocal, “Strange Fruit.”