Though the Gemini Junior High School Jazz Band played in the Niles Library Friday, nobody tried to ssshh them.

Playing a little Sonny Rollins, a little Count Basie and other great jazz, the seventh and eighth grade musicians delightfully surprised the crowd with their proficiency and jumping rhythms.

The band, under the direction of Matt Janus, a band director in East Maine Elementary District 63 who works at Gemini, Stevenson and Mark Twain schools, received the honor of being selected to play at the Illinois Music Educators Conference. They'll travel to Peoria for the Jan. 26 performance.

"These kids started in fifth and sixth grade, and now they're in seventh or eighth grade," Janus said. "So they're doing very well for being in their second or third year of performing."

The band members played for about an hour to an enthusiastic crowd in the library's large meeting room.

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