There was a point 4 or 5 years ago when I thought jazz would be the area of the next great kids music explosion. This most American of musical art forms had not been sufficiently explored by musicians focusing on families, and it seemed ripe for artists to fill the space. And, yes, there were a number of good, even great, jazz albums for families.
And then, silence.
OK, that's an exaggeration. Coal Train Railroad and Oran Etkin have both released albums that families with any jazz tendencies (and even those who don't) should check out. But I expected more musicians to try their hand at this. After all, jazz is -- or can be -- the most playful of musical forms, and what audience is -- or can be -- more playful than a bunch of under-10s?
Well, with the addition of the folks from WeBop, Jazz at Lincoln Center's (JALC's) early-childhood jazz education program, I'm hopeful that perhaps we're on the cusp of another kinder-jazz renaissance. Their first album for families, WeBop: A Family Jazz Party!, is my favorite jazz-for-kids album since at least Putumayo's Jazz Playground disk from a couple years ago, and definitely my favorite non-compilation since the great Medeski, Martin & Wood album Let's Go Everywhere.
Some of my enthusiasm for this particular disk is rooted in my own personal jazz tastes, which are heavily weighted toward the classic jazz of pre-Bitches Brew Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Dizzy Gillespie. (This isn't particularly surprising, I suppose, given the interests of JALC's Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis.) And one of this album's greatest strengths is its celebration of that heritage. Unlike a lot of the "introducing jazz to the kids" disks, which take traditional kids' standards (e.g., "Old MacDonald" or "Itsy Bitsy Spider") and put them in a jazz arrangement, many songs on this album take jazz standards and add (or tweak) a few kid-friendly lyrics. Not every standard is modified -- the Duke Ellington classic "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" speaks just fine to kids as-is -- but some of the adaptations are inspired (I particularly loved the re-purposing of Coltrane's "Syeeda's Song Flute" into "Syeeda's ABC," an alphabet song, natch). And kudos for figuring out how to work free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman into a kids' track ("Free Jazz Adventure").
Besides the traditionals and standards, there are also a handful of originals. These songs tend to be a little more pedagogical in nature. "Shakey Shake Shake," for example, encourages shaking of rhythm instruments and jumping around. "Playin' Together," a song about, well, playing jazz (playing together, then taking solos) is buoyed by Adam Platt's nimble toy piano playing -- it's probably the first song featuring that instrument that I truly dig. I don't think they're the equal of the standards, but that's kind of an unfair comparison. As you'd expect considering the Lincoln Center parentage, the playing is top-notch, from drummer Matt Wilson, the album's music director, on down. And the participation of kids on some of the tracks, such as on "What Kind of Food Do You Like To Eat?," their take on Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts," just adds the right amount of childishness.
The 50-minute album is nominally targeted at kids ages 2 through 7, but its playfulness will appeal to jazz fans of all ages. Listen to samples from the album and download a copy of their take on "When the Saints Go Marching In" at the album's page (you can also download an activity booklet).
I like WeBop: A Family Jazz Party a whole bunch. It's joyful, playful, and full of life. Even if you're not particularly into jazz -- maybe especially if you're not particularly into jazz -- it's an album your family should check out. Let's hope this encourages some other jazz musicians to follow suit. Highly recommended.
There are not many artists who play jazz for kids, which is a sad thing. Sad not because Jazz Is The American Art Form and more kids should be aware of their country's musical heritage (even though that statement is true). Sad because jazz can be one of the most playful musical forms, and who plays better than kids?
On their second album, Coal Train Railroad Swings!, Nashville's 
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A lot of kindie musicians dream of creating their own TV shows.
Most of the rest of them want to become authors.
That works out to varying degrees, of course. Chris Ballew, AKA 
In fact, these books owe the majority of their charm not to the words but to Endle's cut-paper artwork, which is simply beautiful. It's a collage but with everything meticulously planned and put just in the right place. (Take a look at that cover -- you'd think that it was entirely hand-drawn until you look closely at those bushes.) Both books are nature-based -- Bunny Rabbit presents a series of animals in different light settngs while My Woodland Wish is an ever-so-slightly more narratively-driven book that follows a girl spying on (and interacting with) various woodland creatures. The books are cute, but not too much so -- they don't over-anthropomorphize the animals (or give them eyes waaaaay out of proportional to the rest of their bodies).
The words/lyrics to the books (created by Ballew alone in the case of Bunny Rabbit; the two of them together for My Woodland Wish) aren't bad, they're just not what keeps me returning to the books. Ballew created Caspar Babypants melodies for the words, and while they don't have the zippy energy that I personally enjoy most about CB songs (nor should they given the subject matter), they definitely create a sense of dream-like wonder like many of his other songs do.
Caspar Babypants - "Bunny Rabbit in the Sunlight" (book preview) [
