Jazz in the Primary School Kay Charlton
Earlier this year I was successful in obtaining funding from Arts Council England (no mean feat these days!) to do a jazz project in South East London primary schools. The key to the project was partnerships, both old and new. The project was conceived with a colleague who has extensive experience of working in primary schools and a deep knowledge of the local area - and a love of jazz! We teamed up with our local Music Hub and they linked us to three primary schools and provided Music Hub tutors as their contribution to the project. The key ingredient was working with two top jazz musicians - Orphy Robinson on vibraphone and Byron Wallen on trumpet. My expertise underpinned the project - I created the musical resources and pedagogical approach;
I’m a trumpet player too but not a jazz specialist, without this group of partners the project would never have got off the ground. The project was based around introducing new music and instrumental skills to year 4 children - jazz is a genre with a rich history that features improvisation and prominent black musicians, both past and present. We put a jazz band together that included the Hub tutors, and kick-started the project with a schools performance in a local theatre - ‘Let’s go on the jazz train’, led by Orphy Robinson. This is a fabulous musical journey where we meet musicians such as Louis Armstrong, the Duke (Ellington), Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and Melba Liston with our band performing
