Songs, Rhythms & Chants for the Dance

Songs, Rhythms & Chants for the Dance

by Ella Jenkins

In this unique release, Ella Jenkins produces music made especially for dance and dancing, and interviews members of Chicago's dance community about their jobs and the different ways they work to combine sound and movement. Many friends of Jenkins' join her in vocals on select songs. The piano, bass, guitar, and percussion instruments are used to create the sounds of spirituals, chants, blues, and folk songs for dancers.

Ann Barzel, a dance reviewer who Jenkins interviewed, stated, "In the dance, the human being is at a higher level of consciousness than in any other live activity." And that is certainly the hope and attitude put forward in this album, as Jenkins presents multiple forms of music specifically intended to encourage an open and free-moving relationship to music. In the cover booklet, Jenkins writes about all the different types of dance that have influenced her over the years, including tap, ballet, interpretive dance, mambo, cha-cha, rumba, conga, meringue, guarchaa, and primitive. This album contains many soulful spirituals, such as Wading in the Water, I Don't Care Where You Bury My Body, and Brother John Sellers, which begins as a spiritual before taking a radical tone change to a 1950s dowop song at the end. Please Hurry Home stands out as the jazzy number on the album, while What's the Matter With the Team? is a call-and-response track that sounds like a high school cheer, complete with hand clapping and slapping. Other call-and response style songs on the album include I Heard Him Cry This Morning, Jenkins' interpretation of an African chant Hey Moo Ma Moo Ma Moo Ma Hey, and I Climbed a Mountain, where Jenkins first sings a verse in English and then in the East African language, Swahili.

The three instrumental songs on the album each have their own distinct sound, encouraging different movements. It will be interesting to watch how your child reacts to the guitar accents in A Long Time, or the hand drums in Yemayah, God of the Sea. This Is an Afro Mood is a quick tempo instrumental featuring the piano, bass, and percussion; there is some repetition of the melody, so watch your little one to see if they repeat the same motions each time the melody comes around, suggesting that they are recognizing the repeating melody - consciously or unconsciously. Your child may also surprise you by singing along, as many of the songs offer rhymes and fun words. For example, A Vivo A Vavo is very short and repeats twice, spouting lyrics such as, "Hefty lefty/Bela bela befty/Singa la minga la/Loof, loof, loof!" This is an African Mood begins with several measures of just bass beat before fun sound effect words begin; "Ah yeah ah yeah ah yeah ah/ Eh choom choom choom choom choom." Ann Lehnjoff, a dance teacher stated, "The natural creativity that children have is abundant around the age of five." She said that the key to maintaining children's creativity and attraction to natural movement is to help children feel free to be themselves while dancing. Just as the song Let Yourself Go says, "Let yourself go, relax! You've got yourself tied up in a knot. The night is cold but the music's hot."

I first listened to this album with my niece when she was two-years-old. We listened to it in a few different sessions while playing. I noticed that she would stop what she was playing with to listen to the songs in other languages, or the gibberish words, which means she was recognizing when she heard something new. She would occasionally ask me what some of the words were, and when I explained that they were African words, she wanted to know what Africa was. I showed her on a map where Africa is verses where we are. I doubt she really understood what that distance meant, but her curiosity was certainly encouraging.

--Audra

Ella Jenkins is a prominent children's folk singer, whose career has spanned four decades and visited all seven continents. She was dubbed, "The first lady of the Children's folk song" by The Wisconsin State Journal and has appeared on Mr. Rogers and Barney. Jenkins has released a total of 28 records and 2 videos since 1957. Jenkins was also rewarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy. "Growing Up" was released in 1969 from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

Jenkin's best-selling record, You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song is also the best-selling record ever for the record label. The record's title song was added to the National Recording Registry in 2007, joining other collections of sounds that are considered culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.