Swingin' at 0900

What kind of musician, you ask, will fly across the country in order to slide out of bed before the sun has fully risen, clean up, scarf down breakfast and start playing  Maynard Ferguson and Count Basie charts at nine in the morning?

The answer? MUs. After you've spent years playing 0600 inspections in drill halls, 0730 concerts and colors ceremonies at flagpoles and 0800 shows in high schools, a 0900 downbeat isn't odd at all.

MUs have turned on the swing before civilian musicians have turned off their alarms clocks.

Sax section formidable: Jim Hayward, Ray Ascione, Terry Chesson, Dennis Bear and David Blakeley.