NOSTALGIC—Agoura and Calabasas High School alumni have united for a Big Band era tribute. Along with some high school students, the performance will feature several musicians who are attending elite music colleges or programs around the country. College students home for the summer just can't get enough jazz.

Seventeen music students have collaborated on a show at Blue in Agoura Hills on July 3. Calling themselves the Bugaboo Big Band, the group of mostly college students are preparing to blow the crowd away with some swinging jazz music perfected while away at college.

The leader of the band, Danny Jonokuchi, had a brainstorm on his trip home from Temple University, Boyer College of Music, where he said he studies privately with world-renowned trumpet master Terrell Stafford.

"I came up with the idea of having my own big band while on a plane flying back to California from Philadelphia," Jonokuchi said. "I realized that my best friends back in my hometown of Agoura are some of the most talented musicians in the country. I knew that all I had to do was put 17 of them in the same room and wait for something incredible to happen."

One friend, Danny Janklow, attends Temple University as well. He plays alto sax. Other members are Andrew Persons on trombone, Eric Lamm on bass, Scott Bramer on guitar, and Jordan Seigel and Jamie Eblem on drums. All are Agoura High School alumni.

Lamm attends Juilliard; Seigel is at the Berklee College of Music, and Eblem is at New York University. Persons attends Boulder University in Colorado, and Bramer is at USC.

Calabasas graduates are also part of the big band summer experience. Brian Blaker, a tenor sax player, and Michael Dabach, a trumpet player, attend the University of the Arts, while Mark Einhorn, a baritone sax player, is a University of California, Los Angeles student.

Thousand Oaks High School graduates have also gotten in on the act. Trombone players Brian Casebolt and Chris Lamoreaux attend the University of Southern California.

High school students skilled enough to play with the college boys are Scott Lamm on tenor sax and Christian Choh on alto sax. Stephen Palazzo plays the trumpet. All three attend Agoura High School.

Shawn Williams is a trumpet player from Eastman High School who now attends California State University Northridge. Matt Bronstein, an Agoura High grad at Roosevelt University in Chicago, will play the French horn in the Bugaboo Big Band.

"Many of the members had not performed together because of the large age difference or school difference," Jonokuchi said. "Everyone is coming from extremely different musical backgrounds, and it is incredible seeing how each of us has something to teach one another. It's great being able to turn to someone and be able to ask questions and then turn to the other side to give advice."

Jonokuchi said they also had the common goal of promoting big band music, which they all see as a "dying art."

"We perform classics by Duke Ellington and Count Basie and do arrangements by modern composers like Michael Abene, Bill Holman and Pat Matheny," he said.

The Fri., July 3 show at Blue in Agoura Hills is from 8 to 10 p.m. For further information, call (818) 889-8476.