Mary Jo Papich knows a thing or two about sparking a love of jazz music among young people.
The award-winning music teacher worked in public schools for 37 years, including 20 in the Peoria Public Schools system. She's also a co-founder of the Jazz Education Network, a Chicago-based non-profit focused on promoting jazz education and performance.
For Papich, her love for music started at a young age. She started singing with her older sisters, and picked up the trumpet in the fifth grade after seeing her big brother play. The church and a high school band director were also big influences. But Papich figured out early on that teaching others how to play jazz was more important to her than performing.
"I've never been one that wavered about a career, or what am I going to do? I always knew what I was going to do, and went for it," she said.
She started out as a substitute in Peoria Public Schools, then became an elementary school band teacher. That was followed by 10 years as band director at Woodruff High School, and a stint as the district's fine arts supervisor.
For her, one of the keys to inspiring a lasting love of jazz is to meet kids where they are musically, even if that means they're performing a jazzy cover of a pop tune - something purists frown upon.
"I don't think we relate to kids. We have got to go where they are sometimes, not always have them come to where we are, but meet them where they are. And if that means stretching your listening and your boundaries, it's worth it to reach the kids," Papich said.
That means keeping up on current musical trends.
"We put Bruno Mars out. We put some hip stuff out for them to play. Because, you know, big band swing isn't the answer to turning on kids to (jazz). "Little Brown Jug" and just doesn't cut it, "In the Mood." Sure, those are classics, and we need to learn the classics and the standards. But we also need to do fusion. We need to do all those things," she said.
Papich said she's working to tie the present to the past with the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
"We have to hook them with today's music and let them you know, walk through hearing the progression and realizing that what they have today comes from jazz," she said.
Papich said she's also used jazz to teach about the world.
"When I started teaching, I could teach American history. I could teach the way the music mirrored what was happening in our country. And it was fun. Kids liked it," she said.
That also includes teaching diversity and inclusion through the music and its historical context.
"Many times in the typical concert band world, or, or traditional orchestras, you have to look for female composers or composers of color. But the teacher must do that. In today's world we must do that. Jazz is even easier, because so much of the literature was written and performed by African Americans, by Black America," she said.
That includes songs like Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" about lynchings, or Nina Simone's racial injustice anthem "Mississippi Goddam."
"Comprehensive teaching what it's all about. Don't just play a song, but talk about it," Papich said.
When music programs are cut by school districts facing budget difficulties, Papich said that has an impact far beyond just learning about the performing arts.
"By being active in an ensemble, you learn responsibility, you learn loyalty, you learn to work with others, even if you don't enjoy them, or like them, and that's what the workforce needs today. And confidence, confidence," she said.
Papich said she could always tell when a prospective teacher candidate had a background in musical performance.
"If they were in jazz choir, show choir, they could walk in and command a room. You're like, wow. I mean, there's a presence there that they've learned. Cooperation, collaboration, these are all life skills, and not to even mention the whole richness of the cultural spirit, the whole richness of your quality of life being enhanced by not just making music, but the ability to understand it and the ability to comprehend it, and fill your soul and maybe inspire you creatively, to do other things in or out of the arts," Papich said.
