LOS ANGELES (Cherry Lane
Music Foundation)-In celebration of February as
Black History Month,
Music Alive!, the educational music magazine and listening program for teenagers, will bring the sounds of exciting African-American music masters into music classrooms across the country.
The February issue includes feature coverage on Pop/R&B trio Destiny's Child; folk legend Odetta; the royal family of jazz, the Marsalis Family; historic gospel performers Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers; and rock guitar greats Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley. A "Who's News" segment showcases emerging composer/violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain, who has written 24 "Hip-Hop Studies and Etudes" and serves as Chair of Music Theory and Composition at the Harlem School for the Arts.
So that students can hear exactly why these musical luminaries have had such great impact, February's accompanying Music Alive! Classroom CD provides recordings by Destiny's Child, Odetta, the Marsalis Family, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Edwin Hawkins Singers, Bob Marley, and Daniel Bernard Roumain.
This month's "Cool Careers" interview is with Warner Music Group Executive VP Kevin Liles, the hip-hop visionary who evolved from unpaid intern to label president of Def Jam Records and has recently articulated his inspiration and street-smarts in Make It Happen: The Hip-Hop Generation Guide to Success.
"The amazing varieties of music we cover all season long would not be the same without the extraordinary contributions from black cultures," says Editor in Chief Caroline Horn. "It's not just the African hand drum or cow bell or gospel choir that you might hear woven into a pop arrangement. We're talking about the actual foundations of rock 'n' roll, the Jamaican-immigrant origins of hip-hop-and let's not forgot the entire musical idioms of blues and jazz! There isn't one genre of pop or world music that hasn't been invented or transformed by talented musicians of color."
Every month during the school year (October through May), Music Alive! provides 30 copies of the colorful Student Magazine, a Teacher's Guide of complete lesson plans keyed to National Standards for music education and literacy reinforcement, and a Classroom CD of relevant recordings. Homeschool subscriptions are also available.
Founded in 1981 by acclaimed record producer Milton Okun, Music Alive! is a not-for-profit initiative published by the Cherry Lane Music Foundation, Inc. The magazine is advertisement-free and always screened for classroom appropriateness.
