By CLAYTON PARK

When students at Alternative School #1 in the Pinehurst neighborhood say their school rocks, they arenıt exaggerating.

Teacher Adam Boesel offers a music class called ³Folk Songs for Peace,² and, during his off-time, he plays guitar and harmonic and sings in a group called Creeping Time.

Teacherıs aide Bryan Manzo offers an after-school extracurricular course on rock Œn roll, and in his spare time plays saxophone and guitar in a band called Maximum Coherence.

Not to be outdone by her teachers, A.S. #1 second grader Rachel Trachtenburg, age 8, plays in a band with her parents called the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, which is on an independent record label, and which won first place last year in a talent show at Bumbershoot.

On Friday, April 19, the public will get a chance to hear all three bands perform in a concert that will be held at the North Seattle Community College cafeteria, beginning at 7 p.m.

Admission is $7 per person, with proceeds from the event benefiting A.S. #1 and an educational organization called the Thornton Creek Project. Boesel said the school will use its share of the proceeds to provide scholarships to students who might not otherwise be able to afford to go on school field trips.

Boesel, a Green Lake resident who teaches second and third grade as well as physical education at A.S. #1, said the idea for the concert came from another teacher at A.S. #1, Lauryn Cook, who has Rachel Trachtenburg as one of her students. Cook noticed the abundance of accomplished musicians at the school and thought it would be great to have a concert that would feature those talents.

The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players features Rachel Trachtenburg on drums and background vocals and her dad Jason Trachtenburg on lead vocals, keyboards and guitar. Rachelıs mom, Tina, operates a slide projector which shows vintage slides that provide the inspiration for Jason Trachtenburgıs wondrously imaginative, and often wildly humorous songs. The Trachtenburgs live in the Olympic Hills neighborhood.

The idea for the act came about in early 2000 when Tina bought the slide projector and a box of slides at a garage sale. ³One night, I decided to break it out and watch them,² recalls Jason, who then thought it would be fun to write songs about the slides that could tell what he imagined to be the subjectsı stories.

Rachel, who was six at the time, began taking drum lessons at the Seattle Drum School and was added to the act. The decision was a natural, says Jason, who noted that she was coming to the shows anyway and displayed a natural flair for performing.

Rachel has even written a song of her own, ³Skating On Ice With You,² which the family performed as part of their Christmas show at the On The Boards Theater last year.

Jason describes his familyıs act as a ³combination of vaudeville, pop, comedy and political entertainment. We try and touch on current events as well as historical situations and bring them out in a comical way.²

One of the musical numbers the Trachtenburgs perform is titled: ³The OPNAD Contribution Study Committee Report of June 1977.² The Trachtenburgs didnıt make it up, itıs the name of an actual report presented by officials with the McDonaldıs hamburger chain at a company conference in 1977. ³The slides show various executives giving speeches and showing graphs with data,² explains Jason. ³We turned it into a six-song medley. Word for word, we used the actual quotes of the executives.²

The Trachtenburgs have a CD on Orange Records as well as a solo CD by Jason Trachtenburg titled ³Revolutions Per Minute.²

Boesel describes Creeping Time as ³acoustic rock Œn roll with a bluegrass feel ... We sound like Bob Dylan if he had a bluegrass band behind him, only we donıt have his pipes.² He is joined by Ken Nottingham on electric bass and vocals, Kjel Anderson on fiddle and Dave Forrester on drums. The band, which has been together six years, performs frequently at The Lock & Keel in Ballard and Trolleyman Pub in Fremont, as well as other venues. Creeping Time has a CD titled ³How to Fly.²

The Seattle Sun was unable to contact Bryan Manzo for an interview but his bandıs Web site, www.maximumcoherence.com, describes the six-member groupıs sound as a mix of diverse elements including ³progressive pop, adventure rock, circus electronica and symphonic soundtracks.² Manzoıs bandmates include Bottom on guitar and vocals, My on synth and vocals, Robb Kunz on drums and synth, Psychic Sonya on vocals and Torv on bass. The band has a CD titled ³Things the Pillow Told Me.²

Gaspareıs to feature night of music

Gaspareıs Ristorante Italiano, located at 8051 Lake City Way NE, will feature an evening of musical entertainment, from 6-9 p.m. on Sunday, April 28. Restaurant owner Dianne Trani will sing with a jazz trio, as well as with a girl group band called The Fenderskirts, which performs swing tunes and rhythm and blues songs from the Œ60s. Reservations are required. For more information, call the restaurant at 524-3806.

Levıvela CD release party

Levıvela, a band that describes its sound as ³international soul music,² will host a CD release party on Friday, April 12, 9 p.m. at The Rainbow, 722 NE 45th. The cover charge is $6. The members of the band are Dominique Vijarro, vocals/guitar, Kyle Kankanton, guitar, Dan Bartel, drums/percussion, Joshua Rubinstein, trumpet/shofar, Gabriel Canales, bass/guitar, and Shmuel Rubinstein, cello. For details, call 351-0515.