Roosevelt's Macdonald Plays Unusual Duet -- All-Star Lineman/ Jazzman Makes His Encore Football Performance

Stuart MacDonald doesn't look musically inclined, except for his Elvis sideburns.

If linemen are supposed to look like brutes, MacDonald looks like a lineman. His jaw is square, his neck thick and sturdy. His fingers, as big as sausages, look best suited to bring down a tight end.

But they can just as easily weave a melody as delicate as surgery.

MacDonald is a man of more refined pursuits. While most of his peers are into hard rock and Dexter Manley, MacDonald is into hard bop and Dexter Gordon.

MacDonald is a bruising, 6-foot-1, 225-pound offensive lineman. He weighed 250 last fall when he played for the Roosevelt High School football team.

He made the all-state team and was chosen to play in Friday's East-West All-Star football game at Everett's Memorial Stadium.

MacDonald is also one of the best young jazz saxophone players in the area. A few weeks ago, he was a featured soloist at Jazz Alley, a Seattle club.

The images of jazzman and lineman are hard to blend.

Last year MacDonald was chosen the outstanding soloist at a jazz band competition at Clark College in Vancouver.

"When I came up to get my award, people were surprised," MacDonald said.

"They expected to see some skinny guy with long hair. I showed up with a crew cut and a tank top. I could hear people murmuring.

"It must be a strange combination (jazz and football). It's kind of weird to find a football player who plays jazz. But what's the same about both is that they both take a lot of hard work."

MacDonald is a member of the West all-star team, coached by Curtis' Bob Lucey. Friday's game will be his last.

MacDonald is going to the University of Washington next year, but not to play football for Coach Don James. He will play lead tenor in Roy Cummings' sax section.

After a year at the UW, MacDonald hopes to take his music career to New York or Boston, where he will enroll in the Manhattan School of Music or the Berklee School of Music.

Beyond college, MacDonald wants to play his music, not football. Until recently, football was MacDonald's passion.

"I'm actually happier now," MacDonald said. "Football is a lot of fun, but it's a game. Music is a way of life. You have to live it."

This week, MacDonald has put away his sax. He didn't bring it to Everett, and says he wouldn't have time to play it anyway. For now, he can sit back and just enjoy the game.

"Last season I put a lot of pressure on myself," he said. "I was so worried about other stuff, like college football, that I never enjoyed myself. This week I want to have fun."

MacDonald received some interest from schools in the Big Sky Conference. But in the end, he was passed up. MacDonald believes his lack of height shooed away the scouts.

He said he was disappointed when he didn't get a football scholarship. He decided to walk on at Central Washington University anyway.

He changed his mind last February.

That's when he won another outstanding-soloist award at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Competition at the University of Idaho. For his efforts, he won a $1,200 alto saxophone and a $2,000 music scholarship (which he turned down) and a chance to play in front of 2,000 people with Hampton, a jazz vibraphone legend.

"That was the greatest thing I had done, music-wise," MacDonald said.

"I realized music was going to be in my life forever. I wanted to do it all the way. I didn't want to split my time with football like I did in high school."