The Great Dance Jazz Partay

This Week —

Let’s listen to pure, black-only, old school Jazz.

Jazz is rooted in the black experience in the United States. It was a musical movement that grew from a group that was both marginalized and exploited. Fusing elements of West African musical traditions with European harmonic structures, Jazz became one of the most influential, and enduring, musical movements of the 20th century. 

As you play this week’s playlist, I hope it serves as an important moment to teach your children about the way it makes them feel as well as it’s history. Black people invented jazz—and for a long time they were only allowed to play this groundbreaking music for other black people in black-only clubs. They were denied recording contracts and radio shows solely because of their skin color. 

But Jazz was so good and so powerful, it could not be contained or denied. It spread like wildfire. Still, white musicians who turned to Jazz were always paid more, treated better, and featured in higher-end clubs. Our playlist for this week consists exclusively of black jazz musicians.

Listen to —

Prepare yourself for pure, old-school Jazz: liquid, golden, JOY made into waveforms. On this playlist you’ll hear everyone from Louis Armstrong to Sarah Vaughn—even Fats Waller makes an appearance while singing about big feet.

Learn more —

I recommend this wonderful children's book: Jazz ABZ by trumpet player Wynton Marsalis which celebrates the spirit of twenty-six stellar jazz performers - “A is for Almighty Louis Armstrong”.

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