THE SOUND THAT JAZZ MAKES

THE SOUND THAT JAZZ MAKES

Written by: Carole Boston Weatherford Illustrated by: Eric Velasquez
Paperback| Pages: 34
Size: 8.5 x 1 x 11 inches USD:$16.95
ISBN: 978-0761457329
Publication Date: January 5, 2012 Edition: ‎Reprint Publisher: ‎ Two Lions
Age: 6 - 8 years

About the Book

Two acclaimed picture book talents combine in this award-winning journey through the history and legacy of jazz, the unique American musical art form. Carole Boston Weatherford’s poetic text is perfectly matched with Eric Velasquez’s powerful oil paintings. From an African drum to a slave ship to a Harlem nightclub, The Sound That Jazz Makes explores the African-American experience that gives jazz its passion and spirit.

AWARDS

  • 2001 NCCS Carter G. Wuudsin Award

  • 2001 NAACP Image Awards Nominee

★★★ THE REVIEWS ARE IN! ★★★

This book traces the evolution of jazz in a poem of four-line stanzas that begins with an African drum beat and ends with a rapper who still hears "-the age-old, far-off beat/of Africa drumming on every street." Each stanza accompanies a full-spread oil painting outlined with a crayon line and bordered in white. On many pages, one figure-an African kalimba player, a Delta bluesman, etc.-is featured in front of the painting, breaking the frame and extending into the white space below. The animated African animals and dancers depicted in warm golds and browns contrast sharply with the still figures and somber tones of the scenes on slave ships and in plantation fields. These, too, contrast with the bright colors and movement of the cakewalkers, gospel singers, and swing and bebop musicians with their arms or instruments lifted joyously upward. The final illustration of a young African-American trumpet player with his family against a background that incorporates many elements from the previous paintings is a satisfying synthesis of both the visual and written elements of the book: "JAZZ is a downbeat born in our nation,/chords of struggle and jubilation,/bursting forth from hearts set free/in notes that echo history./This is the sound that jazz makes!" Although some of the rhymes don't scan as well as others, this is still an especially attractive, satisfying pictorial introduction to and celebration of this unique American musical form.-Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.—School Library Journal

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