"Somewhere there's music, how faint the tune. Somewhere there's heaven," she sang, her voice gaining confidence with each stanza.

"I think she wants to sing higher," Frankye Kelly, jazz singer and instructor, advised the keyboardist. Kasandra started again, and Kelly added her full, rich voice to the song, guiding Kasandra through the notes.

"Somewhere there's heaven, how high the moon. There is no moon above, when love is far away too." Kasandra snapped her fingers expertly.

Kelly was rehearsing Kasandra and the other students in her Back in the Day program, which teaches jazz classics to young people at the Arroyo Viejo recreation center in East Oakland.

Each student learned two songs by a jazz master. Kasandra learned "How High the Moon" and "A-Tisket A-Tasket" from Ella Fitzgerald's repertoire.

"I chose Ella because she made up scat, and she was a queen," Kasandra explained. "And she had a lot of energy inside of her heart. She was a nice person."

In addition to the lyrics and music, Kellyteaches her young performers stage presence, how to move with the music, even how to hold and adjust a microphone.

She had formal gowns made for them, donated by Tess Aldolpho, owner of Aldolpho's Bridal and Formal shop in Alameda. Kelly showed videos of the great singers and taught the youngsters about their lives and struggles.

"It's so important they know the history of jazz," Kelly said. "They need to know the background for their heritage, the beginning of the music they listen to. R&B, hip-hop, it all comes from gospel and jazz."

Cierra Williams, 10, wore a light-lavender, full-length gown and chose Nina Simone as her artist.

Pam Hughes, 13, had on a gray gown, the bodice decorated with lace, and high heels. Was that her first time wearing heels?

"No, it's my fourth time," she said. Her artist is Billie Holiday.

Natasia Jackson, 8, kept pulling up the top of her strapless white gown, accessorized with bright-pink flip-flops. She chose Dorothy Dandridge.

The girls were transformed by their gowns, gliding gracefully across the room. And then the next minute Natasia and Cierra tore down the hall chasing someone.

"They're tomboys," explained Kasandra, a diva in her gown or her everyday clothes.

"They aren't necessarily going to grow up to be singers. This is about developing their self-esteem. One of the girls wants to be a pediatrician; one wants to be a lawyer. They will need self-esteem to go anywhere and fit in and accomplish great things," Kelly said.

She recently released her third CD and will perform with singers Denise Perrier and Lavay Smith at this weekend's Fillmore Jazz Festival.

If Kelly doesn't expect her students to follow her career path, you would never know it from her patient, tender coaching.

"You're OK if you forget, just keep going. The audience doesn't know," she told Cierra. "You start singing, and he'll (the keyboardist) join in."

In February they performed their numbers at Jazz at Pearl's, a well-known San Francisco jazz club.

Rudy Johnson, 17, the one

young man in the program, could be a singer.

"He's got a beautiful voice. He opened for me at the Berkeley Library Divas show," she said. In just one year, singing — combined with some speaking tips — helped him to stop stuttering.

Johnson, who chose Nat King Cole as his artist, sang "Gee Baby" in a clear tenor. She thanked him, and he beamed a beautiful smile.

"What I love most of all, when I come here, instead of hearing them sing rap and hip-hop, they are singing jazz. I hear them improvising and singing each other's songs. They know some of the stuff from where they came," Kelly said.

"Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone, without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own," Pam sang, her voice so sweet it could almost make you cry.

Frankye Kelly's Back in the Day singers will perform today at noon at Oakland's Office of Parks and Recreation's Kick Off in the Plaza in Frank Ogawa Plaza, downtown Oakland.

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