CD review: Wynton Marsalis – Jazz for Kids 2019: Video: CD cover

A new children’s jazz album has been created by New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis giving the big band treatment to childhood classics and nursery rhymes like Old McDonald, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Itsy Bitsy Spider and The Wheels on the Bus.

The world famous trumpeter says the idea is for the whole family to swing along and to introduce young children to jazz, with sophisticated arrangements to keep the adults entertained too.

In the liner notes, pianist Joe Alterman says: “Jazz for Kids is a perfect representation of another timeless adage: “jazz is life.” There is seriousness in the fun, and there is joy in the seriousness.
Music is at its most powerful when it makes one feel connected with the past, and Jazz for Kids breathes new life into songs we think we’ve known forever.”

Track list:

1. Baa Baa Black Sheep
2. Old MacDonald
3. Mah Nà Mah Nà
4. Itsy Bitsy Spider
5. La Cucaracha
6. Wheels on the Bus (feat. Hoda Kotb)
7. It Ain’t Easy Being Green
8. I Like To Take My Time
9. Rubber Duckie
10. Pop Goes the Weasel