Ed Maina, assistant band director for Charles W. Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines, Fla., professional jazz musician and father to Sgt. Priscilla Wagner, a flutist with the III Marine Expeditionary Force Band, gave an impromptu class on improv jazz while visiting his daughter here.

Wagner explained she had played her father’s music for other members of the band, and they were eager to meet him and sit in on his class.

Maina relished the opportunity to give a class to the Marines, he said.

“I love teaching,” he said.

Maina took the band members through the essential elements of learning improvisational jazz, which is basically practice, practice and more practice, he said.

It is about taking elements musicians are already familiar with and varying them slightly and tweaking them until a new sound is created, he said.

This process is inherent to the jazz form, he said. Jazz is a combination of European harmonies and African rhythms and is one of the few true American musical styles, he added.

“But, it’s also only really appreciated in Europe,” he added with a laugh.

Maina demonstrated improv jazz with the help of Cpl. Michael Perkins and Cpl. Stefan Budricks on guitar, Staff Sgt. Matthew Savina on piano and Maina on saxophone.

The ensemble played several selections from Maina’s own improvisational compositions.

Wagner said she has benefitted a great deal from her father’s love of teaching. He was her first flute instructor, and she will be following him later this year to his alma mater at the University of Miami where she plans to pursue a degree in music.

“She was one of the top recruits,” her father said proudly of his daughter.

Maina has played with famous musicians, including Frank Sinatra, Natalie Cole and Chaka Kahn, but he still relishes his small gigs at jazz clubs at night and teaching anyone and everyone willing to learn, he said.

“You do it for the love of the art,” Maina said.