Abstract: 5: The Legacy of Jazz in PicturebooksIn this column, we pay homage to jazz by examining picturebooks about the cats of jazz and the evolution of jazz music.Art in its many forms has survived to inform us of lives long gone. Art inspires, lifts our spirits, and brings beauty to our lives. We wish to pay homage to it and the people who created it.-Leo and Diane DillonPURPOSEFUL AND MEANINGFUL, the books we review motivate readers to delve into the creative and aesthetic impulses of jazz that reflect America's musical and social history. Informed by European music traditions (Myers, 2006), jazz has deep origins in Africa, where music was and continues to be so essential to cultural tradition that leaders and storytellers employ music to teach, remember, and celebrate (Igus, 1998). The picturebook Imani's Music by Sheron Williams (2002) speaks to this tradition in the form of an African folktale.Whether it's the blues, swing, bebop, cool jazz, Latin jazz, or fusion, jazz music is integral to American culture. In fact, some contemporary hip-hop artists are recognized for the jazz influences in their music (e.g., Common, The Roots, Yasiin Bey/Mos Def), while some jazz artists infuse their work with hip-hop rhythms, moods, and form (e.g., Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding; Dennison, 2012; Irwin, 2012). Here, our review of just some of the jazz picturebooks of the last decade (2003-2013) is inspired by the cool jazz classic Take 5, written in quintuple (5/4) time and popularized by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Thus, our book collection is organized into five sections: The Blues: Establishing Some of Jazz's Roots, The Voices and Victories of Jazzwomen, The Journeys of Jazzmen, Connecting Children and Communities Through Jazz, and Syncopated Jazz Verse. Although some books correspond with multiple categories, we attempted to group titles by their most salient features. Table 1 provides a legend of symbols so you can see information about each book at a glance.Category 1: The Blues: Establishing Some of Jazz's RootsThe blues, often associated with the South, are firmly rooted in the histories of African Americans. As a rich musical genre, it exemplifies how music serves as an emotionally fused foundation on which people mourn and survive. The books below provide readers with significant information about the historical trajectory of the blues, noted blues artists, and the role of the blues as living, lyrical testimonies of African Americans' resilience.Roots and Blues: A Celebration by Arnold Adoff, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie New York, NY: Clarion, 2011Roots and Blues is a lyrical and artistic preservation of human story in the face of continual persecution. The signature style of Adoff's poetic verse carries readers on rivers of hope, fortitude, and despair as they experience visceral connections to the various forms of enslavement that African Americans have experienced in the United States. Arnold Adoff showcases African Americans' transformation of human suffering into a musical genre that touches the core of the human soul and reverberates beyond. His tribute to the masterful artists of the blues, (e.g., Muddy Waters, Ma Rainey, Big Joe Turner) on the endpages and in poems, as well as his listenings, which read like blues lyrics, will further entrance readers.The musical sustenance of Roots and Blues is enriched by the soulful illustrations of R. Gregory Christie. In his signature medium of acrylics and his artistic style of bodily emphasis as tribute, Christie masterfully uses cool hues of blues, greens, and purples with dynamic splashes of red and orange to convey the depth and breadth of the human spirit. Readers can truly see and feel the emotional pulls of history, song, and humanity. The continual interplay between Adoff's poetry and prose and Christie's color-saturated single- and double-page illustrations, which often bleed off the pages, provide readers with a visual treasury of memories. …
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
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