Scatting, dancing, singing the blues: upper elementary students from around the district reveled in a workshop with Queen Bey, the ambassador of jazz.
In town for a Saturday night performance, the veteran musician with the smoky voice and warm heart led two workshops Friday that gave 350 students a taste of jazz, blues, gospel and scat. Accompanied on the piano by Charles Williams of Kansas City, Bey began her show with the classic "Get Your Kicks on Route 66." She then described the melting pot of cultural influences that created a distinctive American sound.
"It's all nationalities, it wasn't just made by one people, it was made collectively by all the groups of people," said Bey. "All the nationalities waited their turn to come up and put their music in the pot."
Using "Amazing Grace" as the foundation, Bey demonstrated the different styles of gospel, jazz and blues. She changed her intonation and technique while singing the same lyrics to give the song a new sound. She then introduced the students to scat, the art of improvising nonsense syllables in a stylized way. In Bey's capable hands, nursery rhyme song "A Tisket, A Tasket" got a whole new attitude.
"You won't find scat in any book because it's not taught," she said. "You see how the words just flew around; I just made those words up, and it's not really words but sound."
"A little lady by the name of Ella Fitzgerald made that very popular," Bey added.
Weaving in a lesson in self-esteem, Bey told her young audience that each had a special creative spark to discover and admonished them to avoid violent and denigrating rap music.
"If it's not Christian rap or rap that teaches you to be positive about yourself, don't listen to it," said the Kansas City native who now lives in Los Angeles. "If its cursing or gansta or talking about having guns, don't get into that."
Calling students on stage for a turn in the spotlight, Bey helped each find an inner creative voice and let it loose, often to the wild acclaim of their peers. For the shy or reluctant, she whispered lyrics in their ear, which they repeated into the microphone while working toward a scat, blues or jazz sound. She laughed and clapped in time with the kids who burst out on their own initiative.
But all received a hug and, Bey hoped, a boost to their self-esteem.
"It was fun, I like to sing," said Brooke MacManus, a fifth grade student at Old Mission Elementary at Sabin, who attended the afternoon session.
Fellow fifth grader Meghan Brown weighed in favor of nonsense improvisation: "I liked the scat."
Debbie Watson, a fifth grade teacher at Old Mission Elementary at Sabin, said her students loved the workshop with Bey.
"Her message was so powerful and so positive and I think the whole atmosphere just allowed the kids the freedom and the confidence to do so much," she said. "They all thought it was very, very cool and they were impressed with her."
A grant from the Traverse City Area Public School district funded the workshop, a disbursement of grants the district received, noted Eugene Jenneman, director of the Dennos Museum Center.
"When you start to work with performers, you need to be able to pay them so you need to find the resources to make that happen and the schools have some funding for these kinds of things in their grants," he added. "So it's a matter of us being a provider of these kids of services."
Bringing students into the formal setting the Milliken or the Dennos Museum is another goal of these events, beyond the specific educational intentions of the workshop.
"Frankly I like the idea of students coming here because they get to engage with the performers in their professional setting," said Jenneman. "Part of this is the students become comfortable with these kinds of settings so as they grow up and go out on their own, they feel comfortable coming to a museum or a concert and sort of know the routine."