When listening to jazz, many forget that the genre is linked to blues.
For that reason, Felice Green, a member of the Handy festival board of directors, has been organizing the ABCs of Jazz for the W.C. Handy Music Festival since the festival began.
On Tuesday, area children and adults gathered at Mount Moriah Family Life Center to learn, in a Music 101 style, about the elements and origins of jazz.
The overall mission, Green said, is to inform the children about what makes a jazz composition come together and the individual instruments, such as the saxophone, double bass, drums and piano, that create the jazz sound.
Green said she wanted the session to prove that jazz is a part of their everyday lives, even in the cartoons they watch.
“It's important for people to be well-rounded," Green said.
The Handy Festival All-Star Band conducted the event and has participated in the ABCs of Jazz for the past two years. In between playing “Bag's Grooves" and “The Nearness of You," the band paused to give a brief lesson about the three main parts of jazz: improvisation, rhythm and distinction in voice.
Ray Reach, the band's piano player, said jazz has roots in blues, and that is what makes the sounds so unique.
“That's what make jazz fun - the element of surprise," he said. “Blues can be happy, fast, sad or slow."
For that reason, Felice Green, a member of the Handy festival board of directors, has been organizing the ABCs of Jazz for the W.C. Handy Music Festival since the festival began.
On Tuesday, area children and adults gathered at Mount Moriah Family Life Center to learn, in a Music 101 style, about the elements and origins of jazz.
The overall mission, Green said, is to inform the children about what makes a jazz composition come together and the individual instruments, such as the saxophone, double bass, drums and piano, that create the jazz sound.
Green said she wanted the session to prove that jazz is a part of their everyday lives, even in the cartoons they watch.
“It's important for people to be well-rounded," Green said.
The Handy Festival All-Star Band conducted the event and has participated in the ABCs of Jazz for the past two years. In between playing “Bag's Grooves" and “The Nearness of You," the band paused to give a brief lesson about the three main parts of jazz: improvisation, rhythm and distinction in voice.
Ray Reach, the band's piano player, said jazz has roots in blues, and that is what makes the sounds so unique.
“That's what make jazz fun - the element of surprise," he said. “Blues can be happy, fast, sad or slow."
For more information contact All About Jazz.
