Colony Middle School jazz band goes prime time

PALMER -- The Colony Middle School jazz band took its music to the mountain this spring. And Tuesday night, MSNBC will bring the band's music to you.

National Geographic Ultimate Explorer captured the band on camera as it played for climbers at the Kahiltna Glacier base camp on Denali in May. The students played jazz classics like Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean a Thing If You Ain't Got That Swing" and Glen Miller's "In the Mood."

About one minute of the performance aired nationally Nov. 2 in National Geographic Ultimate Explorer: Life and Death on Denali. MSNBC will re-broadcast the program Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. Alaska Standard Time.

CMS music teacher Tobias Lambert said the group of 17 seventh- and eighth-graders chartered a flight and spent about 90 minutes on the mountain Memorial Day weekend playing music and sledding. He said neither he nor his students expected to see a National Geographic film crew there that day.

"We had planned on going up there but hadn't planned on any media coverage. That was just an added bonus," Lambert said.