The Elmhurst College Jazz Band is one of over two dozen collegiate ensembles performing at this weekend’s Elmhurst College Jazz Festival.

Along with hundreds of college musicians, you’ll hear music from big name professionals, including the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Bob Mintzer, John Pizzarelli and others.

This year the festival celebrates its 40th Anniversary, and for nearly thirty of those forty years, Elmhurst College director of Jazz Studies Doug Beach has been right in the middle of it.

Chicago Public Radio’s Dan Bindert recently caught up with Beach, who says much has changed since the era when jazz in the classroom was still a novel idea.