Recess! Media

“I started out to make a little CD just for my own kids, using the very talented jazz musicians who were sleeping on my couch and eating my spaghetti,” writes Lisa Beth Kovetz on the liner notes for the three-CD set called Jazz Baby that she has produced for Casablanca Kids. Imagine waking up to sounds like these drifting in from the sofa in the living room:

Brief Sound Clip:

That’s Barbara Morrison with a group of other house guests doing their awfully cool version of “London Bridge.” The CDs all have this simple premise: take standard nursery rhymes or traditional or popular songs that have a kind of child-like innocence to them, and then — take off. So you may get Sweet Baby J’ai doing “Lavender’s Blue” or Rosemary Clooney marching us through the “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” from the 1930s. The actress Sybill Shepherd does a cool version of “All the Pretty Little Horses.” Jim Belushi shows up with “Momma Don’t Allow No Guitar Playing Round Here.” And you won’t soon forget Billy Preston’s “Clementine”– here’s just a taste:

Brief Sound Clip:

Lately, there have been a growing number of jazz CDs for children, but this is one of the very best. Everything here sounds fresh and full of new energy — like Brazilian singer Claudia Acua’s amazing “Kum Bay Ya.”

Brief Sound Clip: