The Mesa Arts Center is getting a $58,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. As KJZZ's Terry Ward reports from Phoenix, the money will help fund the Center's 'Jazz from A to Z' program.

TERRY WARD: 'Jazz from A to Z' promotes music courses for junior high and high school students, funds workshops for teachers and students and will sponsor a jazz festival next April. Mesa Arts Center Theatre Director Randy Vogel says jazz can teach students about an American art form and also about American history.

RANDY VOGEL: When you want to talk about the 1930s and '40s you can talk about Billie Holiday and her song, "Strange Fruit." And if we're successful we introduce kids to jazz at the same time they learn American history.

WARD: The 'Jazz from A to Z' program will sponsor a public performance this year with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.