Kinderjazz Founder Talks Sesame Street, Indian Food, And Performing For 1 Billion People
mtsmanagement
Posted On February 19, 2016
Whether you’re looking for ways to stimulate a developing young mind, you’d like to introduce children to the pleasures of music, or you just want your kids to have FUN, you’ll find Kinderjazz’s collection of blues, latin, ragtime, jazz, and swing music is perfect for girls and boys under the age of 12.
The one-of-a-kind swing band for children has performed in some of the most prestigious venues in the world, and their recorded music is specifically written to engage young children, while simultaneously appealing to adults of all ages. Parents love it because it is jazz and its educational in a fun way, grandparents love it because it takes them back. Children love the rhythms and enjoy the instruments.
Kinderjazz is a 12 piece fully acoustic swing orchestra, featuring some of the best musicians in Australia. They have opened Manly Jazz Festival in 1998, and since then, have performed at the Sydney Opera House, Daring Harbour, the Teddy Bear’s Picnic at Parramatta Stadium, to more than 10,000 families, Carols in the Domain 2000 on Channel 7, Stadium Australia and many major venues around Australia.
Christobel Llewellyn, one of the band’s founders, took time out to answer questions about Kinderjazz, including their recent New Year’s Eve performance to a global viewing audience of more than 1 Billion people:
Q: Tell me about your recent performance at the Lord Mayor’s Picnic. It was said that you were performing in front of an audience of 1 billion people, worldwide. What was that like?
Christobel Llewellyn: We’ve been doing this for 14 years now and have already been invited back for 2016! The Lord Mayor’s Picnic is children’s event put on by The Lord Mayor of Sydney in the Royal Botanic Gardens on the Harbour. What makes it great in every way is that it’s for special needs kids….around 2000 of them and their families. The gardens are decorated like fairlyland. There’s always a theme and last year’s was the Zoo in honour of Taronga Park Zoo’s 100th Birthday. The entire place was transformed into a jungle with actors and puppets dressed as animals, there was even crocodile swamp and KINDERJAZZ were not only headlining, they were the exclusive band for the picnic. We provided all the background music for the interactive storytelling, we performed our songs in four different sets between 5-9pm and also provided a djembe drum circle in between so all children could get up close and personal with the instruments, the musicians, the drums and the story. This year’s story was about a baby chameleon who is born in the jungle and realises he’s not a tiger, he’s not an elephant and goes through all the animals until he realises he is unique and special just the way he’s born to be.
The musicians ditched our regular costumes for animal character onesies which was hilarious!
Being blasted via television to a worldwide audience of 1 billion is hard to get our head around. We are so focused on the kids and the music, to be perfectly honest, we hardly noticed being filmed and the many cameras and smart phones videoing and clicking away.
Some of these children have spent the entire year in hospital so this may be their only night out and they really let go. The music helps of course. Often it’s the siblings who have missed out as all the parent’s time and resources have gone to the one child in the family who’s sick and they get the in mosh pit and dance as if their life depended on it. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s both humbling and transforming. It puts our lives in perspective.
Everything we do at the event is of the highest quality because it matters so much that we give them the best.
The picnic numbers have grown from a mere 400 to 2000+ so the challenge is always, how do we top this?! I think we have by starting Sydney’s first special needs Children’s Choir. I’ve commissioned a top Australian Composer to write a song for them for the 200th Birthday of the Botanical Gardens this year so they can perform it at the Picnic. There won’t be a dry eye in the place. These kids never get to be part of what able kids take for granted. More often than not, they are discriminated against. We will also have deaf kids signing on stage with the rest of the choir. They’ll get to be accompanied by KINDERJAZZ on the night. A world first!
Q: What’s the craziest thing that has happened while on the road, and where did it happen?
CL: OMG there are so many but this takes the prize! We were at the Hakoah Club on Bondi Beach and just when our trombone player got up out of his seat to play his solo, a feather from our singer’s boa floated in the air. Being a master improviser, our trombone player kept the feather in the air his entire solo. It brought the house down! I’m sure there are a lot of kids who’ve taken up trombone since and tried that trick 😉 It could become a KINDERJAZZ legacy.
Q: How did you become involved in music education for children? What gave you the crazy idea to combine big band and jazz with kids music?
CL: My mother was a teacher and ran her own Montessori kindergarten. Music was always a big part of our lives. All the adults growing up played instruments and sang and we were taken to live performances on a regular basis. When I had my own children, I wanted to duplicate this experience for them but I found that there wasn’t the same quality around and so often children’s music was delegated to a fluffy character and a backing tape. Jazz is something that all kids respond to because of the beat. It’s dance music and there’s such a variety of genres in jazz it seemed the ideal thing. Also jazz with its solos and fresh improvisations would nurture a small child’s curiosity and gratify their imagination in the process. I chose Big Band because it would give children exposure to all the instruments of the orchestra.
Q: Critical praise, record sales, or industry awards…which one is most important to you and why?
CL: I think I would have to go for record sales. I believe we spend money on what we value the most so if people are buying our albums, it means we mean a lot. It also means we are getting to our audience. No amount of critical praise or industry awards would give us that. We want to make a difference in children’s lives through live music.
Q: Tell me about your current album, Teddy Bear’s Picnic. How did the album come about, who wrote the songs with you, and what was the recording process like? What’s your favorite song on the album and why?
CL: Teddy Bear’s Picnic has been a long process. It goes back to 2001 in fact! David Llewellyn writes all the songs and lyrics. He may send the songs to the band at times for their feedback but not usually. He’s more interested in parent’s and children’s reactions. They get a lot of playing in before they are deemed worthy of an album listing.
I would have to say “Razzmatazz” is my favourite. It’s very theatrical with an operatic high note and smashed glass! Children never tire of the slapstick humour and the score is richly reminiscent of the golden age of Hollywood. Also, the horns are seriously tight.
Q: Have you been writing and recording for a new album yet? If so, tell us about the direction the new album is taking.
CL: David has already written the next two albums. He doesn’t seem to stop. If anything, the albums are getting closer to radio shows where a child can listen to songs, jokes and stories and be entertained. Of course, now that our own children are grown up and have left home, our pets seem to be included in the new material.
Q: Up to this point, what is the highlight of your music career?
CL: For KINDERJAZZ it would have to be selling out 30 shows at the iconic Sydney Opera House. I still get flashbacks of the sea of strollers and the thousands of kids and their families enjoying every moment. There was even a fight over CD’s. One parent bought her son for five shows in a row because one wasn’t enough. They kind of get addicted. People came from all over the world which really opened our eyes to what was possible for the band.
Q: Do you plan on touring outside of Australia? If so, where would be your ideal place to tour and why?
CL: Yes, absolutely! Kinderjazz is old enough to leave home and we plan on doing just that as soon as possible. Our dream would be to perform on Sesame Street in New York and tour the States. We have a huge following already and we can’t wait to meet them. It’s an expensive undertaking to travel with a 12 piece orchestra and I’ll find a way.
Q: What is one career goal that you hope to accomplish in the next year?
CL: Again that would have to be performing on Sesame Street. I feel the time is right and there’s a definite synergy with what we do.
Q: Outside of music, what does Christobel enjoy? And if I was to come to your house, what would you serve for dinner?
CL: love to cook for my friends and family. I also enjoy going to Symphony concerts at the Opera House or Chamber Music at Angel Place as well as Jazz at the Foundry or the Basement in Sydney. I know you said outside of music but there seems to be a soundtrack for whatever I’m doing! Can’t seem to go a day without it! I am quite a voracious reader and usually have 4 or 5 books I’m reading simultaneously. It’s not always novels but mostly articles and research on Music and its effect on the brain. I’m particularly interested in neural recovery and music. I enjoy meeting up with friends and going for long walks along the harbour. We can walk and talk for 5 hours at a time. The smell of the sea is so refreshing.
If you were to come to my house for the first time, I would go all out and cook a full Indian dinner with all the breads made from scratch and probably Butter Chicken and Lamb Korma with Saffron and Almond Rice. For dessert it would be homemade ice cream and a cheese platter. It would certainly go well with the chocolate Port I bought on a recent trip to Melbourne.
