Jazz in the Primary School

by 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 the music - introducing children to jazz and some of its great musicians through live performance.

Following this, the tutors visited the schools for six weekly workshops, mostly using classroom instruments - glockenspiels, djembes and percussion. Each school learnt to play Ellington’s ‘C Jam Blues’ - a 12 bar blues that uses just two-notes - and a jazz standard of their own.

My part in the project was to provide the teaching resources and training for the tutors:

• A Jazz Handbook - an introduction to jazz, its origins, key styles and major musicians

• A guide to the chosen repertoire with YouTube links

• A guide to active listening

• How to play the music on classroom instruments

• Authentic jazz style

• How to improvise

• How to perform as a group

• Child voice - self assessment, does this sound good, can we make it sound better?

• An assessment guide for teachers

How to improvise was key to the project. Many music teachers - both specialists and non-specialists - don’t feel confident with improvisation. My clear guide uses a step-by-step process based on copy-backs and call and response with clear, progressive parameters.

Crucial to this process is utilising backing tracks; I made specific tracks for each jazz standard with many choruses (that is, times round the chord sequence) to give plenty of time and space for creative work.

The project culminated in a large-scale performance at Woolwich Works, a new, local venue which is building links with the community The three schools performed together along with the live musicians, and instead of watching a performance of the Jazz Train story, they were active participants, performing and improvising jazz music alongside the tutors and jazz professionals.

Legacy

Schools were chosen where there was no instrumental tuition taking place, with a view to the schools maintaining this new relationship with the music hub and continuing with instrumental tuition or ensemble work.

Ofsted’s latest subject report for music (September 2023) calls for incremental development of musical knowledge and skills over time, in a nutshell, that is what this project aims to do - the Jazz Handbook providing the resources and pedagogy for work to continue in the schools with nonspecialist teachers and throughout the Hub’s instrumental tuition via the tutors.

You can find out more by emailing kaycharlton music@yahoo.com