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Jeff Coffin of the Dave Matthews Band has called Utah's own Crescent Super Band the best youth Great American Songbook band in the world.

So it makes sense that the band has been invited to headline its own night in one of the best venues in the world, Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Now, all the band needs is a little help from its Utah friends to make it to the Big Apple.

With $100,000 already pledged, the band needs about $200,000 more to cover travel and other expenses to make it to New York City in order to play at the famed music venue on May 21, said Caleb Chapman, the director of the band.

The band doesn't want these tax-deductible donations to go unacknowledged, so the 23-member ensemble's eighth full-length album, "A Crescent Christmas," will be available at local stores and online. For each $20 CD, $13 will go directly to the young musicians, said Gaylen Rust, head of R Legacy Entertainment, which is releasing the album on its label.

"When they hear the music, it's worth every penny," Rust said.

While individuals can buy the albums, Rust and Chapman are hoping local businesses and corporations will buy the bulk of the albums and hand them out to employees as year-end bonuses or stocking stuffers.

Sam Bennett, 17, of Magna's Cyprus High School, plays trombone in the band, and said his idol, the late Buddy Rich, once played on the stage of Carnegie Hall, along with "the biggest bands we've heard of." He added, "To play on the same stage as him is a dream come true."

The high tab for travel expenses also includes about 50 other young Utah musicians who will open for the Crescent Super Band: the Voodoo Orchestra (performing jump swing and rockabilly) and La Onda Caribena (Latin and salsa music), both led by Chapman. Musicians from the trio live as far south as Cedar City and as far north as Davis County.

Organized in 2001 under the direction of Chapman, the award-winning Crescent Super Band consists of musicians and singers who are enrolled in high schools across the state.

Caleb Chapman's Crescent Super Band's new album, "A Crescent Christmas," can be ordered at http://www.legacymusicalliance.org/. The album will be released on Nov. 9.

Check out the band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j4NW4Yo6Ng and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsb45mZqXTA&feature=related