Amazon.com has a no-questions-asked, free MP3 download section that offers hundreds of tracks that I hear rotate frequently. There's a lot of good stuff here, and cheapskate/obsessives like us will certainly be poring through it. There are even some fun kids' tracks! [Via A Freebies Free For All] - Jennifer

- Jeremiah

There's not much that can pull me out of a funk faster than some good ole Dixieland Jazz. The first time I saw a Dixieland jazz band, I was about 12 years old and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band had come to play a performance in my town. I still remember them playing "When the Saints Go Marchin' In" and playing and marching their way off the stage and through the audience until there was a huge Dixie style conga line marching and dancing and singing with the band. I've since seen Dixieland in New Orleans, San Francisco, Prague and Budapest (where I encountered one of the world's best Dixieland bands, Hot Jazz Band). So it was with more than a little anticipation that I put on a couple of Dixieland CDs for Z and I to listen to lately.

We started out with Dixieland Jazz for Children by Johnette Downing and Jimmy LaRocca's Original Dixieland Jazz Band. You can buy it on CD or for just $9 in MP3 format - Amazon's MP3 page for the album has samples of every song.

Z's favorite song on this CD by far is the first one, "Dixieland Jazz' - "Dixieland Jazz, Dixieland Jazz the best jazz in the land..." - the song then goes on to introduce all the different instruments in the standard Dixieland Jazz band. Other favorite songs from the album include "Throw Me Something Mister" - all about getting some beads and doubloons from a float in a Mardi Gras parade (I can't wait to take Z to a proper Mardi Gras parade), "I've Got Happy Feet" - which for some reason reminds me of that famous New Orleans con where the con bets the mark that he can tell you where you got your shoes. (The answer plays on the New Orleans' substitution of "you've" with "you," and it's whatever street you're standing on - if you're on Decatur, for example, it's "you got your shoes on Decatur right now.") But the song is really about dancing your way through New Orleans.

Then we turned on Putumayo Kids' New Orleans Playground. This is a compilation of songs from different jazz musicians which we first reviewed here and of course, Z's favorite song was Hack Bartholomew's "When the Saints Go Marchin' In." You also really can't beat a Dr. John rendition of "Row Row Your Boat" or Buckwheat Zydeco's "Skip to My Blues." You can hear short song clips from this album on Amazon as well.

The only video I could find to represent either of these CDs is an awesome video of one of my favorite Dixieland artists, Ingrid Lucia, singing "Do They Play Jazz in Heaven?" with Irvin Mayfield. It isn't on either of these CDs (why not offer some samples on YouTube, folks?) but it's a great video and if you aren't familiar with Dixieland, it'll give you a taste of what's in store on these CDs. It's a great style of music young children can easily relate to and that gets them moving. Best of all, it's just as much fun for the parents, who can enjoy the musicianship, drive, and mood-lifting melodies as well as the genre's varied subject matter.



Both are great CDs, and highly recommended for your little toe-tapper! - Jennifer

Like many musicians writing for adult audiences, not all of Rufus Wainwright's music is appropriate for kids, but most if it is, and it's amazing stuff - a "baroque pop" that combines dense orchestration with soaring pop tunes. One of Wainwright's songs, "Natasha," was my first and longest-standing adapted lullaby for Z when she was a baby (her first name has the same number of syllables and ends in a rhyme, so it's easy to substitute.) She has spent two years listening to Wainwright's music and now, at four, is very interested in him. What follows is the first in a series I'll call "Listening to," in which Z and I converse over an artist's music. All album links lead to Amazon pages where you can listen to samples of the songs we're listening to here. In the case of Wainwright, many of the details of his challenging life can wait for years before Z has a very real sense of where he's coming from. (I'll admit that I'm even leaving some of the most colorful of his adventures out of this post... just have to draw the line somewhere.) But she loves what she hears, and I'd recommend any Rufus Wainwright album in its near-entirety for kids and parents to enjoy together except Want Two.

"Sanssouci," Release the Stars

Z: I want to see a picture of him.

Me: OK. [Google search.] Here's some.

Z: [Doe-eyed]: He's handsome. He's handsome.

Me: Yeah. I like those clothes.

Z: Yeah. He's really handsome. He sings pretty. Is that you singing?

Me: Well, I'm singing with him.

Z: Where does he live? In London?

Me: [Surprised] Maybe. I'll check. [Begins writing post.]

Z: Are you working to find out where he lives?

Me: Yeah. Well, sort of.

Z: Oh.

"Movies of Myself," from Want One

Z: He sings pretty. Do I sing prettier?

Me: Well, I think you sing very pretty too.

Z: I sing prettier. Where does he live? Where does he live?

"Little Sister," from Want Two

Z: This is my favorite song.

Me: It's one of mine too.

[Reading to self, silently, on Wikipedia.]

Wainwright was born in Rhinebeck, New York, to folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III (a direct descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Director-General of New Netherland). His parents divorced when he was three years old, and he lived with his mother in Montréal, Canada for most of his youth. Wainwright is both a U.S and Canadian citizen. He attended high school at the Millbrook School in upstate New York (which would later inspire his song "Millbrook"), and later briefly studied piano at Concordia and McGill Universities in Montréal. He began playing the piano at age six, and started touring at thirteen with "The McGarrigle Sisters and Family", a folk group featuring Rufus, his sister Martha, his mother Kate, and aunt Anna. ...

At the age of fourteen, Wainwright was sexually assaulted in London's Hyde Park after picking up a man at a bar. He remained celibate for seven years after the incident, which he claims postponed his becoming promiscuous. In an interview several years later, he described the event: "I said I wanted to go to the park and see where this big concert was going on. I thought it was going to be a romantic walk in the park, but he raped me and robbed me afterwards and tried to strangle me". Wainwright states that he survived only by pretending to be an epileptic and faking a seizure. ...

The singer moved to New York City in 1996 and began performing regularly at Club Fez, building a loyal local audience. He relocated to Los Angeles later that year and began recording his first studio album, 1998's Rufus Wainwright. Waronker paired Wainwright with producer Jon Brion, and the two spent most of 1996 and 1997 making the record. Wainwright recorded 56 songs in total, spread out over 62 rolls of tape. Costs for the recording sessions reached $700,000.

Wainwright's self-titled debut received critical acclaim; Rolling Stone recognized it as one of the best albums of the year, and named the singer "Best New Artist" of the year. Wainwright was nominated for four awards by the Gay & Lesbian American Music Awards, including Album of the Year, Pop Recording of the Year and Video of the Year, and won for Best New Artist. Rufus Wainwright won a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Music Album and a Juno Award for Best Alternative Album. However, commercial success of the album was limited; the debut failed to chart in any country, though he ranked #24 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart.

I can't really tell where he lives.

Z: Why? Why can't you tell me?

Me: I mean I don't know. The words I found don't say. They say where he lived at different times, but not where he lives now.

[Reading more, silently.]

Wainwright became addicted to crystal meth in the early 2000s and temporarily lost his vision as a result. His addiction reached its peak in 2002, during what he described as "the most surreal week of my life." ...

Seeking guidance, he telephoned his friend Elton John, who persuaded him to check in to rehab at the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota. He detoxed and underwent therapy at the facility, which he has stated in several interviews gave him "a second chance". He refrains from discussing his experience in rehab or answering questions about his subsequent sobriety, although he adamantly opposes crystal meth use.

Z: Does he live in London?

Me: I think he lives in New York or L.A. He lived in both places.

Z: Does he live in the place with the flood that you loved? [New Orleans.]

Z: Maybe he writes music for people for dancing. Like ballet.

Me: It's funny you should mention that. He is actually writing an opera.

[Reading again.]

Following his 2007-2008 tour, Wainwright began writing his first opera, Prima Donna, which he says will be about "a day in the life of an opera singer" anxiously preparing for her comeback, who falls in love with a journalist. There are four characters, and the libretto will be in French. The opera was originally commissioned by Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb. However, because of a dispute over Wainwright's decision to write the libretto in French and the Met's inability to schedule an opening in the 2009 season, Wainwright and the Met have ended their relationship. Instead of opening Prima Donna in New York, Wainwright will stage it for the Manchester International Festival in 2009, where the first stagings will take place on July 10, 12, 14, 17, and 19.

Read a five-minute interview with Rufus Wainwright, including a discussion of the opera.

"Do I Disappoint You," from Release the Stars

Z: Daddy! This is one of my songs! [Z has had most of Release the Stars on her music player since she was two.]

Me: You're right!

Z: It even has kids in it. Why does it have kids in it?

Me: I guess they wanted to have kids in it. Do you like the kids' singing?

Z: Yeah. This song is my song. - Jeremiah

Orchestral performances of video game music may someday strike kids as the same eye-rolling pander the "Theme from Superman" eventually became for my generation, but I doubt the parents who came of age with that movie would ever fight as fiercely for its merits as we would for the early days of computer gaming. Besides, a lot has happened since then, and the gimmick of playing selections from John Williams was that it attempted to break then-persistent conventions about what orchestras could properly perform - standards that have since been jettisoned entirely as classical music scrambles for a new popular relevance, performing with pop musicians and turning heavy metal ballads into pieces for string quartet. At this point, I think it's safe to say it's really all about the music, and the culture the music brings with it, less than it is a statement about the orchestra.

From Geekdad:

The show began with a ten minute medley of songs set to old game clips on a large video board behind the orchestra and choir. Animations from Ghosts N Goblins, Outrun, Road Rash, Defender, Contra, Joust and many, many more flashed across the screen as the symphony built to a crescendo before abruptly stopping. The crowd erupted with applause and cheers.

Then the voice of Solid Snake, David Hayter, introduced Video Games Live co-creator and longtime game soundtrack composer, Tommy Tallarico, who served as the evening's host. He set the stage for several pieces during the first act, starting with (of course) Pong, before moving on to Metal Gear Solid, God of War, and both the Sonic and Zelda series. Koji Kondo was one of several composers who appeared on video to talk about their work. [Link]

You can catch Video Games Live around the country (and beyond) in the year-plus ahead, including performances in many cities off the beaten track of many major tours. Tickets run a hefty $35-$50 at most locations, but for the right parent-child teams, this may be one of those experiences you just oughtta have. - Jeremiah

Our post this morning on The Tranquil Parent got me thinking about crayons - specifically, about an old Sesame Street segment that shows how crayons are made at a crayon factory. I remembered the visuals from childhood, and fortunately it's right there on YouTube. This is great stuff for broadening young kids' horizons using items with which they are intimately familiar.



But in my search I discovered something even more inspiring: A musician who loved the music from this segment so much that he tracked down what authorship he could (it's only partial) and then reconstructed the score himself and performed and recorded it. Cross-fertilization like this is usually confined to videoblogging essayists conversing (which is great in itself, especially if you find people who are actually good at it), so this was a rare treat for me. This video also makes great use of YouTube's new text-note feature to provide commentary and detail throughout without interrupting the music or requiring a lengthy expository intro.


- Jeremiah