[Dixielandjazz] re: Jazz for Kids--and the Chicago Stroll

[Glenn Broadhead]

I've made some presentations to daycare kids aged 4-8, and they had fun
watching me take my instruments out of their cases and assembling them,
playing a few notes (including squawks and squeaks), and then actually
making some music.  They were impressed by the tenor sax, but watching the
clarinet materialize out of its small case was absolutely amazing.  They got
a kick out of seeing me put it together and then playing it.

Playing tunes kids know is a great idea, but I'd urge you to play them in an
authentic traditional style, without dumbing down the music.  Most young
kids will accept any kind of good music.  When my own kids used to watch Mr.
Rogers, they always loved the great piano music at the end as much as I did.
I can't remember the pianist's name, but he appeared on Marion McPartland's
show once and showed great taste and musicianship.

By the way, my workplace at IIT is located right along the stretch of
Chicago's State Street that constituted "The Stroll" back in the 1910s and
1920s.  Some of my students are working to create a scale model of the
Stroll as well as a related website
(http://www.iit.edu/~techcomm/iit_&_the_stroll/).  A page about the composer
and ragtime pianist Joe Jordan suggests the direction we're headed in: a
short biography of Jordan, some pictures of sheet music, and a few mp3 files
from MIDIs of the sheet music
(http://www.iit.edu/~techcomm/iit_&_the_stroll/musicians/jordan_joe/index.ht
ml).  These will be enhanced in time with formal bibligraphies,
discographies, song lists for composers, and so on.

If anyone on the list has sheet music, photographs, or other materials that
we could duplicate and use on the website, or at least store for scholarly
uses, we'd be very grateful.  Of course, we can't put anything online
without observing copyright laws, so we're most insterested in finding
unpublished, uncopyrighted materials such as personal snapshots and other
memorabilia.  Photographs are particularly difficult to find, so if you've
got a picture of Uncle Ed and Aunt Edith standing in front of the Vendome
Theater in 1929, that would be sensational.  We're currently videotaping
interviews with IIT graduates and long-time residents of Bronzeville, so if
anybody would like to share memories of State Street and Chicago's South
Side during the 20th century, we'd be very happy to hear from you.

P.S.  We're interested in blues and gospel music as well as traditional
jazz, since they were all part of the scene.


Glenn J Broadhead
broadhead at iit.edu

http://www.iit.edu/~techcomm
Phone: 312-567-3469
FAX: 312-567-5187

Director of Communication Across the Curriculum
Director of Technical Communication Program (Ph.D., M.S., B.S.,
certificates)
Associate Professor of English

Illinois Institute of Technology
Siegel Hall 218
3301 S. Dearborn
Chicago, IL  60616