Happy Top 10 Tuesday, friends! As promised, I am continuing on with my summer musical reading list for all of you. As many of my readers know, camp has a big influence on my writing. Over the last week or so, we have been learning about Jazz music and New Orleans. It’s been a really fun camp theme, and I’ve found a couple of really fun children’s books to go along with this topic.
The first book is by a music educator and author, Matthew Gollub, and is called “The Jazz Fly.”
This charming little fly is inspired to make Jazz music by all of the sounds he hears in the world around him. The story comes with a CD, which is a narration of Gollub telling the story set to Jazz music and rhythms. It is a completely engaging book for any young person, so click HERE to check it out on Amazon.com.
The second book is one that I have been reading for years. It is called “Charlie Parker Plays Be Bop” written by Chris Raschka.
Here is Amazon’s description of the story:
“Ever hear of Charlie Parker? The great jazz saxophone player? If you have or if you haven’t, it’s okay. Look at this board book and you’ll hear Charlie Parker; you’ll hear music in your mind. “Be bop. Fisk, fisk. Lollipop. Boomba, boomba.” Look. That’s Charlie swinging and spinning all over the pages. And that’s Charlie’s cat, waiting, waiting for him to come home…”
Click HERE to check it out on Amazon.
Both books are great representations of Jazz music, and the concept of children trying to replicate sounds and to translate them with their instruments is something that is very age appropriate. Try laying out a few of the Top 10 Tuesday musical instruments and go on a scavenger hunt for cool sounds. (Click HERE to see my Top 10 list of instruments under $40 that will help promote music education in the home.) Ask your child to pick an instrument that best represents the sounds that you found. This concept is very Jazz music oriented!
Also, below are a few Jazz songs that are very child-friendly and that you can listen to with your child:
(1) Count Basie & Ella Fitzgerald performing . Click HERE to watch on excellent 1978 video of the two on Youtube. Ella Fitzgerald scats and uses her voice to sound like the instruments.
(2) Click HERE to hear an audio recording on Youtube of Harry Connick Jr. performing “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.” Try teaching your child to snap and to snap along to the song.
(3) Check out Louis Armstrong and his band playing “Oh When the Saints Go Marching In” by clicking HERE and going to Youtube. It’s such a fun song to sing and dance along to!
I hope you all have enjoyed introducing your children to this very fun and sophisticated style of music today. Jazz music simply rocks, and there is so much you can share with your children about it. Music is an incomparable expression, so thank you for choosing to enrich your child’s life with it! Check back every Tuesday for more musical fun, and for previous Top 10 Tuesday music activities, click HERE. Until next week….play on!