KINGSTON — It’s not everyday that a professional musician shows up at your classroom door, but it has been known to happen at the Kingston Junior High School band room.

Earlier this week, KJH director Jeff Haag invited his old friend Dave Carson and his trio — the Jazz Ambassadors — to Kingston for a daylong classroom performance. About a third to a half of the Cavalier student body enjoyed the musical flavors of jazz, funk and Motown at one point in the school day Tuesday.

“We play a little bit of everything, that’s what makes us unique,” Ambassadors keyboardist Joshua Mason said.

“You could say we are a casual band,” drummer Kevin Blackwood added. “A jazz band that can play Top-40, funk and Motown.”

The Ambassadors set up their gear at the front of the classroom and laid down a few songs for each class. After displaying their techniques in the concert setting, the group broke down some of the classes into sections to do individual lessons.

Blackwood and Carson are both professional musicians, who also provide private lessons.

“The saxaphone player (Carson) is well-known; his students end up taking first place in solo and ensemble competitions,” Haag said. “And we even had, from North Kitsap High School, a kid who came through the Kingston ranks that studied with him and became the top tenor saxophonist in the state of Washington a few years back.”

This year, one of Carson’s current students and also a member of the Kingston ranks — Jamie Shultz — shared the floor-level stage with the Ambassadors and traded jazz licks with the 22-year veteran.

But it wasn’t only band students who got to experience the vibe of a night club concert in a school setting, the Ambassadors also played a set for the seventh grade music appreciation class — students who don’t play in band.

“We had 80 to 90 kids sitting here, listening,” Haag said. “I get to expose these guys (the Jazz Ambassadors) to the public, and our children get exposed to quality music.”

“Kids don’t have anywhere to go to listen to music anymore, at least on this side of the water,” Carson said. “If they want to hear some symphony or blues or jazz or folk, where are they gonna go?”

These days, kids are throwing their own shows, paying rental prices for places like the Bainbridge Island Music Guild or the Silverdale Community Center. But beyond that teenage-esque rock-and-roll, one is hard pressed to find another consistent musical venue, Blackwood added.

Tuesday, KJH students in any of Haag’s classes found a little bit of several different muscial varieties to feast their ears on. The Jazz Ambassadors played songs from sultry jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald’s classic “It don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing,” to the funkalicious “Pick up the Pieces” by the Average White Band along with others including a Thelonius Monk tune.

“We actually had more of an excited response here than we do from some of the parties we do,” Blackwood said.

“We’re trying to provide inspiration,” Mason said.