By the beginning of 1980, The National Endowment For The Arts, in conjunction with a handful of school districts across the United States, was gearing up to launch a new arts program - the Jazz Artist In Residence program. This program would bring a jazz artist into a school district's community for either a half-year or full-year residency. The artist would not just work with the music students in the district, but would also interact with other teachers and students in the schools, relating jazz to any educational discipline, and with the community at large. Only 34 school districts from 16 states would be involved in the 2-year pilot program. At that time, I was the band director at Salem High School in Salem, New Jersey, was in the right place at the right time, and landed one of the pilot residencies for the Salem district. Little did I know that I was about to begin the most incredible 2 years of my educational life.