2015 Jazz Festival
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Foot Painting in Trailblazers' Group
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Jazz is imaginative Jazz is spontaneous Jazz is improvisational. Jazz is play-centered. Jazz is multi-cultural. Jazz is syncopated. Jazz swings. Jazz is creative. Jazz is personal. Jazz is social. Jazz helps foster language development. And best of all - Jazz is fun! That wonderful, all-American art form, Jazz, was celebrated by our MCNS community at our sixth annual Jazz Festival from March 11th -March 25th. We came together to celebrate, sing, dance, explore, read, create art, and play instruments. Joining our teachers and children were professional musicians, parents, and family members. And what a time we had! Some comments from three children in the Trailblazers: "A whole band came to our school." "Darmon played saxophone, flute and clarinet. And Tony played the drums. Phil played the bass. And Mark was with the piano and the piano could laugh." "Louise played her little saxophone and trumpet. And she did the Three Little Pigs just the way Susan did it. And she brought a really big wolf with her." "There's all kinds of music in the band." "Max tapped danced and made sounds with all his body." "Dr. Terry did science. We got to see inside the piano and see how the piano works." "We saw the video of Tito Puente. He played the drums really fast." "Tito Puente could also close his eyes while he played." "We read books about Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman and Miles Davis." Max Pollack
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Latin Tap Dancer Extraordinaire! |
Max Pollack, a favorite of the last two years' Festivals, started off the Festival with his innovative merging of authentic Afro-Cuban music and dance with American rhythm tap and body music which he calls RumbaTap. Not only were the children moving their feet to the beat during his performance but were inspired to incorporate "being Max" in their pretend play. Live music was provided for Max by Mark Kross. Darmon Meader
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Darmon Meader and Friends, Mark Kross, Tony Tedesco, & Phil Palambi. |
Darmon Meader, brilliant founder of NY Voices and a wind instrument virtuoso returned to MCNS with Phil Palombe on the bass and Tony Tedesco on drums. Mark Kross joined them on keyboard and Louise played kazoo and led the teachers and children in a version of Miles Davis' So What. The excitement of the children as they heard one of their favorites SingSingSing played live for the first time was exhilarating. Kids questions for the band: When did you learn flute? In college. Why do you practice? To get better at it. Why do you play the bass? I wanted to play the guitar but it was too expensive and there was one in our closet. Every style of music has a bass so you can play with everyone. The bass is like a really big violin. Why do you play the cymbals? They keep the pulse, the time. It is easy for the other people in the band to hear the beat. I can make different sounds using a pedal. the big drum has a pedal too. I started playing bass when I was little. My father was a drummer.
Justin Hines
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Our favorite percussionist!
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Justin Hines, jazz percussionist, was back at MCNS Jazz Fest introducing the children to the family of instruments he knows best, percussion. "There are three ways of playing percussion instruments," instructed Justin. "First, there are those you strike." To demonstrate striking, Justin grabbed a pair of drumsticks and proceeded to run around the room striking out a rhythm on the walls, cubbies, water fountain, doors, even the garbage can and Howard's shoes! Justin introduced each of our classes to a multitude of instruments, which he struck, scraped or shook to make rhythmic sounds. Volunteers had a chance to play along with Justin on various instruments such as drums and the xylophone. His cymbal was particularly popular with the children.
After demonstrating the third way of playing, shaking the instrument, Justin and the children formed a marching band. The Explorers, Pathfinders and Navigators played the shakers they made with Dr. Terry as they marched. Everyone had a great time. "I want Justin again!" said a child in the Explorers. "Yes, more Justin," agreed another. MCNS Families
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Pathfinders: Thomas Stephens, father of William |
One of the nicest things about our Jazz Festival is the participation by members of our MCNS families. Thank you all for bringing your talent, knowledge and enthusiasm to our festival this year. We had quite a variety of contributions this year. Lisa McCoy, Rhys' mom, read the children's book Ella Elephant scats like that! from the Baby Loves Jazz series to the Pathfinders and led the group in some scatting. Peter Bulow, father of Isaac, brought his puppets made from found objects and performed an original tale about a wicked wizard who stole the musical notes so that the jazz festival could not continue. Luckily the tale ended happily with the notes returned. Amy Kail, Isaac's mother, led his class in movement exploring many ways of moving your body through space and how to make shapes with your bodies. Peter and Amy were both accompanied by Mark Kross on piano. Ian's mom, Blythe Gaissert-Levitt, who usually sings opera, offered two jazz songs which were enthusiastically received by the Explorers. And Sienna's grandpa Steve brought in his guitar for a sing-along, playing such tunes as Twinkle Twinkle in various interpretations i.e. sad, happy, jazzy, and bluesy.
The children formed a train as they moved to Locomotion and he even led the class in a jazzy rendition of Happy Birthday to William who happened to be celebrating his fourth birthday. William's cousin Rashaan Stevens, a sound engineer who scatted and introduced the children to jazz greats including Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne and Sarah Vaughan. Then the children danced with him to Sing Sing Sing. Monica Warren, mother of Nora in the Trailblazers, read Gus Gordon's Herman and Rosie, a love story of Herman, an oboe playing alligator and Rosie, a deer who sings in a jazz club. In the Trailblazers several children participated. Talia played three tunes on the piano. Christopher brought in his harmonica and Grant played a kazoo with Louise. MCNS Staff Our own MCNS faculty also contributed enthusiastically to making the Festival a success. Dr. Terry explored the science of sound in various ways. Shakers were produced by filling cups with beans to accompany the musicians. Glasses were "played" by filling them with varying amounts of water to produce different notes and tapping them with spoons. Guitars and pianos were investigated to see how their sounds are produced. Explorations were undertaken to prove that all sounds are produced by something vibrating. Jazz greats from Ella Fitzgerald to Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Duke Ellington among others were explored with Louise.
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Louise Rogers, Assistant Teacher, our principal music specialist, co-organizer of the Jazz Festival, and incomparable jazz vocolist!
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Susan introduced Tito Puente and let the children in the Pathfinders, Navigators and Pathfinders mambo with colored markers on paper. She led the Trailblazers in "making art with their feet" as they dipped their bare feet in paint and danced to Mr. Bojangles on a paper rolled out down the center aisle of the classroom. Gina added jazz to her Friday movement class and had the children waving their scarves and dancing to Louis Armstrong's rendition of When the Saints go Marching In." Our classroom teachers displayed photos of jazz greats, played jazz CD's and read jazz books from our library throughout the festival. Denise discovered videos of a performance by Tito Puente and all of the children were amazed at the speed at which he played his drums and the way his orchestra all played their instruments together. Joann and Linda even made Jumbalaya in Cooking Studio to add to the jazzy ambience! Mercy collected jazz CD's from our families and the children enjoyed listening and dancing to them. Susan and Louise coordinated the events and Susan documented them with photographs.
Jazz Concert
Our culminating event was a performance by Louise Rogers and Mark Kross for the entire MCNS community. They performed a similar program for the children earlier in the Festival. It was wonderful to hear the children joining in with many of the songs. It was evident to all how much the children had learned about jazz and how much they had enjoyed the Festival. Louise and Mark played the MCNS Jazz Festival favorites, Ella Fitzgerald Sang Bop Boo Day and Charlie Parker Played BeBop from Louise's Bop Boo Day CD and The Three Pigs from Susan and Louise's Jazzy Fairy Tales CD. They also played Take the A Train, a song everyone at MCNS loves because, well, we all take the A train and are thrilled that Billy Strayhorn wrote a song about it. And some of the Trailblazers showed off their dance number, Ball in the Jack. Pizza was served and enjoyed by all, and the 2015 Festival was over!
Photos and memories will be gathered and books about the festival will be made for each classroom so the children can remember and share their experiences. Susan and Louise donated a Jazzy Fairy Tales CD to each MCNS family as a souvenir to remember The Three Little Jazzy Pigs as well as two other jazzy stories told in their classrooms, The Three Jazzy Bears and The Three Jazzy Goats. We are thrilled that the Jazz Festival has become a beloved tradition at MCNS. Louise's idea to have an event that would bring the community together through the arts has become more than we could have ever dreamed of. In fact, in their latest book for teachers of young children Jazzy Fairy Tales II they have included three new fairy tales and hope to inspire others to do what we have done at MCNS. As for us, we are already planning next year's Festival. Ba-doo-bop, ba-doo- bop, ba-doo-ba-doo-bop!
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The final concert with Louise and Mark
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Susan Milligan
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