FIRST LADY HOSTS WHITE HOUSE 'JAZZ STUDIO': Local high school jazz students join Marsalis family and others for tutorial.

       Jazz Studio is part one of a new White House music series that will continue later this year, focusing on the country and classical genres.     

       Monday's seminars focused on the influence American history had on jazz, improvisation through jazz styles, and the influence of Duke Ellington, reports CBS News.

       "Today's event exemplifies what the White House, the people's house, should be about. This is a place to honor America's past, celebrate its present and create its future," Mrs. Obama said in a speech concluding the day's activities. "And what better example of this than jazz, America's indigenous art form."

       Obama applauded jazz as a democratic art form and considers it "America's greatest artistic gift to the world."

       "There's probably no better example of democracy than a jazz ensemble; individual freedom but with responsibility to the group," Obama said.

       Including an anecdote about her childhood, Obama said that her grandfather had jazz playing "twenty four hours a day at the highest volume" as she grew up.

       First daughters Sasha and Malia also attended the event in the first lady's attempt to "keep them alive and aware of other kinds of music other than hip-hop."

       Obama praised all of the jazz students as "future guardians of music" in her speech, stating that she's counting on them to keep the music vital and evolving for generations to come."