NORTH BEND - Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and Charles Mingus probably never expected to jam at North Bend High School. But these jazz greats, along with seven other popular jazzmen, will be lining the walls of the school's band room this spring through a mural project led by the school's sole art teacher.

Eighteen advanced art class students, under the direction of instructor Nunzio Lagattuta, have been working to create 11 panels - all large-scale replicas of a set of U.S. Postage Stamps issued in 1995 that commemorated the musicians - to adorn the music room and hopefully inspire student musicians, Lagattuta said.

“These people were ... pioneers of jazz,” Lagattuta said.

After this assignment is completed, he said he plans to work with students on a similar mural project that will feature 10 female jazz singers, including Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne and Eartha Kitt. The images, which will be based on photographs, will be installed in the choir room.

Musicians who will be immortalized on the band room's walls also include Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, James P. Johnson, Eubie Blake, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Erroll Garner. Part study of scale, part school beautification, Lagattuta's mural projects have been ongoing for three years. Other work has included a mural of killer whales and sea creatures in a school science lab.

“The classrooms (are) pretty sterile unless artwork is in them,” Lagattuta said, adding students tend to benefit from the visual stimulation. “I think they are all working on the assignment with a sense of pride because it's going to be up in the music room. Classes in the future will all see that and know it came from their peers.”

The students, who began working on the project on March 12, were asked to replicate the stamps as closely as possible, sans the 32 cents mark in the upper lefthand corner.

“The best way to get better is to copy masters,” said Lagattuta, who will be painting the image of Mingus.

In addition to teaching students how to paint and draw in a larger format, Lagattuta said he wants to showcase their talents to the entire student body.

“Art is supposed to be in the community. I think art is a public medium,” he said.

At the school on Thursday, student artist Josh Salmon, 17, drew a pencil sketch of Armstrong on a 4-by-4-foot white-washed panel of particle board, while describing how difficult it is to draw on such a large scale. The 11th-grader said the entire process has been lengthy as students have had to recreate the images in pastels before painting a final version.

“This is the biggest thing I think I've ever done,” Josh said. “I think it's a good experience. I think it will be neat to have it in the school.”

While he said the work can be challenging, Josh said he took the class to earn an “easy A,” a comment that inspired teasing and groans from fellow student artists.

Working on her own portrait of Coltrane, Alyssa Gallegos, 17, said she enjoyed the class, but wasn't inspired to work on additional murals.

“It's fun, (but) I really don't want to do another one because it's a lot of work,” Alyssa said. “It's so hard to get all of the proportions right.”

She said she is a bit nervous about other students viewing her work, but liked the idea of how the mural will look once it's completed.

“There are going to be a bunch of kids looking at our art all the time,” Alyssa said.

Other students balked at the class assignment, choosing to create their own interpretations. Hilary Hecht, 15, and Carly Moody, 17, who worked together on a painting of Monk, decided to paint the jazzman in bright colors rather than sticking to the browns, cool blues and purples prevalent in the stamps.

“We don't want to be just copying,” Hilary said as she painted the pianist's neck.

“Yeah, we want to put a little bit of ourselves into it,” Carly added.

Amber Mareski, the high school's band director who described her classroom as bright yellow and “kind of gross,” said she is excited to see the mural in her classroom. She said she teaches both jazz and symphonic band in the room.

“I think it's a great way for them to just know important jazz musicians and pioneers of American music,” Mareski said.