Getting all jazzed up in Harlem
PS 163 teachers (from left) Sophie Kennen, Cynthia Castro and Rachel Warren scat sing for their students.
A 2nd-grader from PS 163 on Manhattan’s Upper West Side scat sings during a class trip to the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.
Dad and class trip chaperone Felix Herrera hugs his son after he performed.
After looking at Duke Ellington’s white baby grand piano and listening to a Louis Armstrong record spinning on a hand-cranked phonograph, students from PS 163 in Manhattan dove deeper into the Jazz Age by channeling Ella Fitzgerald at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.
“Scat singing is a way to use your voice as an instrument with made-up words,” museum teaching artist Kena Onyejekwe said of the “First Lady of Jazz.” “One of the coolest people to ever scat sing, arguably one of the greatest scat singers ever, was Ella Fitzgerald.”
The 2nd-graders stepped up to the microphone while Onyejekwe played electric guitar and sang words for them to repeat. “Da-da-da-da” and “Bibbity-bibbity-bop-bop” were some of the lines one girl belted out.
“I just really love to sing,” she said afterward and thanked Onyejekwe as she left the museum, saying, “This was the best field trip ever!”
Their teacher, Cynthia Castro, said she brings her students to the museum every year around January or February. It’s a great tie-in to the curriculum, and many of her students have never listened to jazz before, she said.
A 2nd-grader raises his hand while visiting the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.
“I love going to the National Jazz Museum because we are learning about communities in social studies, and I think Harlem is such a wonderful community,” she said.
In addition, the 2nd-graders recently learned about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, and during Black History Month, Castro teaches them about famous African Americans as part of English language arts.
The museum visit is interactive, and Castro often sees a different side of her students as they play imaginary instruments, dance and sing.
“Some of my students who are a little shy in class get up there and scat and they have a great time,” she said.
Along with scat lessons for the PS 163 students, Onyejekwe and Ryan Maloney, the museum’s director of education and performance, provided historical details about the importance of Harlem, the Jazz Age and jazz greats like Ellington, Fitzgerald and Armstrong in Black culture, identity and community.
“Harlem has always been a special, special place, especially for African Americans,” Onyejekwe said. “Not only has wonderful music been made here, but wonderful literature, wonderful art. It totally changed the way African Americans were perceived in this country.”
A student is all smiles as she scat sings.
Ellington, a pianist, composer and band leader, wrote more than 2,000 compositions, Onyejekwe said. “He’s not only a jazz musician, but he’s a very important African American artist, and February is Black History Month, so that’s a very special artist to talk about.”
Maloney spoke about what Harlem was like a century ago, when many Harlemites had pianos and hand-crank phonographs in their home so they could both play and listen to music over and over. There were no televisions, computers or other modern technologies, Maloney explained. “The world was a very different place,” he said.
A display of a trumpet played by jazz great Louis Armstrong.
He and Onyejekwe engaged the students by asking them to conjure up imaginary trumpets, drums and other instruments and “play” as a band. “Raise your right hand, go into your pocket and pull out your imagination ball” to transform into “instruments,” Onyejekwe said. “If you don’t have one, raise your hand and I’ll give you one of mine.”
At the end of the workshop, he encouraged the children to go home and listen to more music from the jazz greats. “This is something that you don’t have to stop today,” he said.
The Oom Bop Sh’Bam workshop in which the students participated on Jan. 13 is one of six workshops offered by the museum for children from pre-kindergarten through grade 12. “Jazz Artist Exploration” is a workshop for pre-K through 1st grade. “Jazz Hands” introduces jazz to visitors on the autism spectrum or who have developmental and learning disabilities. Older students can learn about jazz and its role in the transformation of American culture and civil rights and its link to the Great Migration in other workshops.
Group size is limited to 35 people, with 45-minute visits for the youngest children and 60 minutes for others. The fee is $10 per person, with discounts and sliding scale rates for Title I schools. Groups can add a half-hour “live music boost” for an additional fee. For more information, visit jmih.org/education.