This recording features 46 tracks in two CDs of original and remixed children's songs exposing your little one to the wonderful world of jazz. The songs include a fun mixture of undertones from the funk, blues, gospel, calypso, and even rap genres to get your child moving and grooving to the beat. A large spectrum of sounds is covered through male and female-led vocals, children singing in select songs, piano, saxophone, trumpet (with mutes!), keyboard, bass, harmonica, flute, violin, bongo, guitar, tambourine, drums, cymbals and other small percussion instruments.

Listeners will love the unique and distinct voices of the band; Charlie Bird, Duck Ellington, Ella Elephant, Loius Lion, and Mingus Mouse. Some of the voices sound almost like Muppets and are sure to bring an entertained smile to your little one's face. The songs range from the tender and light mood of "Amazing Grace", to the full out blues tone of "No Cookie Blues", silly lyrics in "I Like Blue Lemurs" and a jazzy lullaby in "Itsy Bitsy Spider." "Yellow is Mellow", "Pink is Pink", and "Hey Diddle Diddle" sound like poetry slams, a fun rhythm and style that may be new to your child. The theme of colors is carried throughout both CDs, as you learn in selected songs how jazz can be perceived as every color; "When jazz is purple, you can feel flowers bloom," "When Jazz is Brown, it dances on the air," or "What Jazz is pink, it hops and bops." Almost every song has solos, and some - like "Kangaroo Bop" - display technical fingering and more advanced music than traditionally heard in children's CDs.

Children are directly involved in many songs. When listeners are asked if they are feeling a certain color today (in multiple songs), feel free to encourage your child to answer. In "Drum Lesson #2", each piece of the drum set is explained and played so your little one can learn to identify them and recognize the sounds in the next song. Ella Elephant teaches listeners how to sing scat at different volumes and pitches, and with different instruments, in four different scat songs. She even dabbles in yodeling in "Old MacDonald" in a way your little one can easily imitate after a listen or two. Despite all the singing and dancing, which is easily encouraged, there is even a potential potty training tool in the form of the song, "I Use Potty".

My niece, Emily, played this CD for her fourth birthday party. Everyone - adults and kids alike - joined in on the "Hokey Pokey"! We played it through three times, and everyone was laughing by the end. In "Count to 10?" every time the horn would toot, Emily would squat down, so by the time they got to ten, with ten horn toots, she was really getting a workout!

--Audra

This recording was named "Best Children's CD of the Year" by the NAPPA awards. The packaging comes with a poster with one side colored in, and the other blank for your child to color in. Baby Loves Jazz was created and produced by Andy Blackman Hurwitz in 2007.

Disc 2