Jazz: My Music, My People: (ALA Notable Children's Book; ALA Recommended Book for Reluctant Young Readers) [Hardcover]

Morgan Monceaux (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 1994 | Age Level: 11 and up

Striking portraits, biographical sketches, personal reminiscences, and collage paintings chronicle the historical evolution of jazz from the perspective of forty African-American musicians who played key roles in its creation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For this intimate, moody introduction to jazz, Monceaux offers emphatic mixed-media portraits and biographies of favorite musicians. Typically, Monceaux frames a folk-arty picture of a musician with layers of scribbled colors and scrawled details about his or her life. He often bestows such trimmings as buttons, gloves or lace on his subjects' clothing; Charlie Parker himself gets a plastic party horn, Leadbelly a faux guitar, John Coltrane a toy sax. Next to each image appears a brief biography, warmly informed by the author's reflections: Louis Armstrong is described performing a musical eulogy at the New Orleans funeral of Monceaux's uncle; Count Basie regales guests at Monceaux's grandparents' anniversary party at the Starlight Ballroom in Chicago; a Nina Simone tape fortifies Monceaux in 1966, when he was stationed off the Vietnam coast. The text straightforwardly mentions racism, drug abuse, alcoholism and other adult themes. For example, Monceaux compares a Billie Holiday song about a lynching to "a group of white men [who] drove past me in a car and called me a nigger." Monceaux's demonstration of how music influenced his youth and informed his art may well inspire readers to seek heroes of their own. Ages 9-up.-- drove past me in a car and called me a nigger." Monceaux's demonstration of how music influenced his youth and informed his art may well inspire readers to seek heroes of their own. Ages 9-up.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up-Personal reflections on well-known blues, swing, beebop, and modern jazz artists, presented with passion and respect. Through prose and art, Monceaux attempts to communicate the importance of jazz in his own life and in our country's cultural heritage. Brief biographical sketches not only provide basic facts about the subjects' lives, but also highlight their importance in the field of music and the historical development of this genre. Over 40 instrumentalists and vocalists are discussed, ranging from Buddy Bolden to Nat King Cole, Leadbelly to Charlie Parker, Bessie Smith to Ella Fitzgerald. Each profile faces a full-page artistic rendition of the musician at work. Monceaux's art is interpretive; his multimedia paintings are created from pastels, markers, paint, and collage. He has incorporated hand-written facts inside the illustrations; trying to decipher this writing changes the book into an almost interactive experience-it's not always easy, but the challenge is fun. This unique offering, whose subjective tone adds to its appeal, will be a fine addition to collections that already include Studs Terkel's Giants of Jazz (Crowell, 1992), Richard Rennert's Jazz Stars (Chelsea, 1993), and Langston Hughes's Jazz (Watts, 1982; o.p.).
Renee Steinberg, Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (August 30, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679856188
• ISBN-13: 978-0679856184
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,659,521 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars I recommend this for high school students, February 11, 2012

By 

Shelly - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jazz: My Music, My People: (ALA Notable Children's Book; ALA Recommended Book for Reluctant Young Readers) (Hardcover)

This is a great succinct book that describes the lives of many wonderful jazz artists with some personal narratives from the writer - but some of the content (drugs, rape, prostitution, language . . )is not age appropriate for younger students. It is a great book to use to teach older children about jazz and to maybe begin a discussion about drugs, poverty and racism.

Great illustrations!