Help IDing a book series about a war between alien races, one of them being bird aliens

I believe I read this book series back in high school ('97 - 2001). It was about a war between alien races, one race was like frog/lizard/amphibian like, one race was bird/crane like. I think they called themselves the Wais(?). The main human character (or one of the main human characters) was a jazz musician and somehow he got recruited into fighting. I also remember some battle scenese being pretty brutal for what I thought was YA novel series. I think it was a trilogy of books.

Any help is appreciated.