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Steamboat Springs — The last time Steamboat Springs High School band director James Knapp brought noted trombonist Darren Kramer into one of his classes was four years ago, at another school. His former students still talk about it.

"What he was able to accomplish in one day, there's still a feeling of the contribution he made to them," Knapp said. "He has a real positive influence. He's a real down-to-earth, incredible musician."

On April 15, Kramer and his jazz sextet will sit in on a rehearsal and play a concert with the Steamboat Springs High School Jazz Band. A couple of hours of practice and a shared bill will focus on strengthening the band's performance, introducing its players to basic jazz improvisation and looking at music as something to do for fun.

Proceeds from the concert - which will feature Kramer's soloists on a handful of songs with the band before a special set from his group, the DKO Jazz Sextet - will go toward scholarships to send interested music students to summer jazz camps.

The clinic is part of an effort to invigorate the school's jazz program, and music education in general, by establishing a tradition for it with good experiences, Knapp said.

"It will give them a goal and give them role models - people they can aspire to imitating. And, hopefully, it will expose them to things that they've never done before," he said.

With any luck, playing with people who can seriously play helps show students what they can accomplish by sticking with music. Kramer said he tries to set aside time in every clinic to talk about the options for careers in music, whether that means gigging on a cruise ship or mixing sound in a studio.

"I just to try to get them excited and have a different thought about music that they didn't have before," said Kramer, who has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Matchbox Twenty, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Tom Jones.

Much of the benefit of having clinicians sit in on rehearsals comes from absorbing their confidence and general sense of coolness. It breaks barriers for students who are wary of their abilities - and with a sextet, Kramer said he will be able to put a professional in almost every section of the band.

"I'm up front talking to the whole band, but it's cool to have our drummer there right next to their drummer giving him tips nonstop. They can hear what a professional musician is doing," Kramer said.

"A lot of high school students are a little unsure of themselves, and they don't know what to copy. But when we're there, they go, 'That's it,'" he said.

The idea is to give younger high school students some idea that being in a jazz band is not just something they do in class - that, instead, being in a jazz band is a cool thing to do and is something that can be richly rewarding for those who really put themselves into it.

"There's a concept of what jazz is : Jazz used to be the form of music that everybody did, and it broke all the rules," Knapp said. "Now there are other kinds of music that do that, and jazz was kind of over here, as this established thing. But it's not."