Teachers for a day

Jet, Feb 14, 2005

* TEACHERS FOR A DAY: Legendary Jazz musician Olu Dara (l) and his hip-hop star son Nas substitute for Professor Melvin Jones in the "Inprovisational jazz" class at Morehouse College in Atlanta. During the class, Nas stood behind the teacher's podium and discussed how he got interested in music at an early age.

His father made him listen to music that ranged from John Coltrane to Fela Kuti to New Edition. The multiplatinum record-selling rapper and his father then composed an original piece of music with the students. Dara tuned a student's guitar and coached him on how to strum it. One by one, he included the other students in the jam session. Nas, whose real name is Nasir Jones, freestyled over the students' music. Later, the rapper said he envied the students. "I wish I'd learned more about playing and reading," he said. "I'd be more ahead in my music today." Nas and his father played substitute teachers as part of mtvU's "Stand In." The show features politicians and entertainers applying their expertise to teach pertinent classes at campuses across the nation.