My kids love jazz. We can listen to John Coltrane albums on endless repeat thanks to a single animator, Michal Levy, who explores “the visualization of sound.” When my daughter was a few months old, my husband discovered Levy’s animation for Coltrane’s Giant Steps. She was riveted.
We showed the animation to our 1-year-old and he had the same response. Every time he sees a computer screen he points at it with a “That! That!” until we play him a video, though he’s come to prefer a different Michal Levy animation, One.
I’m a visual person, so I thought that it was primarily the animations that grabbed baby’s attention. But when we listen to albums (Giant Steps in particular), the jazz has a soothing quality that captures their attention in a similar way, even still for my daughter who is now six.
If you like jazz, these animations are a great gateway for your kids.
Dear Amy,
What a wonderful way to start my day, reading this post. Thank you very much!
I love the fact that a complex music like jazz can actually be digested by kids… Every time I hear it, it makes me happy.
And BTW – when finishing my animation ONE, I screened it one afternoon, over and over again, in a small cinema hall. There were few kids that came that day and insisted on seeing it about six times in a raw… there’s something magnetic about ONE for some reason. Few cats I know like it too…!
have a beautiful day,
Michal Levy
I think it’s your animation that makes it particularly digestible for kids – the ability to “see” the music as your animation highlights such wonderful moments in the songs… It’s really powerful stuff.
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