Raising their voices in jazz

"Jazz is an American invention," he said. "It's amazing how it's bigger in other countries. It's very big in Europe and Japan and Manila. Being able to interact with natives of other countries in an American art form, it makes us, sort of, ambassadors of the American musical genre — jazz."

And the group's members come from multi-ethnic backgrounds, he said. There is an African-American, a Polish-Jew, a Filipino and Garcia, who is Chinese Spanish and part Filipino.

"And we have the typical American girl-next-door," he said. "We represent America's society."

Garcia is often asked why they have performed this genre for so long. To the group, singing jazz is like a religion, he said.

"There is not just singing, there is a voice and mental process and there is an emotional process, which is very important," he said. "When we are singing, we try to ignite the emotions in the audience and the only way to do that is if we ourselves are able to understand the words to our music so we can communicate them to our audience."

The group's first CD paid tribute to the great jazz hits of the 1920s and '30s. Crescendo is working on its second CD, which will feature some original work as well as a couple of jazz standards, like Duke Ellington's "Sunday" and Charlie Chaplin's "Smile," which is best known as the theme song for the Jerry Lewis' Muscular Dystrophy Assn. telethon.

"It has such a great message," Garcia said.

"If you listen to the lyrics of the song, it uplifts you. It's a beautiful song. Whenever we use it, we always get great comments about it."