- 12 hours ago
Season 12 (1996-1997)
Original production funding provided by: Kellogg’s Cereal Company
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
PBS Viewers Like You
National Science Foundation
The Pew Charitable Trusts
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
Original production funding provided by: Kellogg’s Cereal Company
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
PBS Viewers Like You
National Science Foundation
The Pew Charitable Trusts
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Reading Rainbow is made possible by a ready-to-learn television cooperative agreement
00:05from the U.S. Department of Education through the Public Broadcasting Service
00:09and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
00:13and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.
00:19Reading Rainbow
00:21Butterfly in the sky
00:24I can go twice as high
00:28Take a look
00:30It's in a book
00:32Reading Rainbow
00:34I can go anywhere
00:39Friends to know
00:43And ways to grow
00:45Reading Rainbow
00:47I can be anything
00:52Take a look
00:56It's in a book
00:57A pretty rainbow
01:00Pretty rainbow
01:03Cool
01:13I love jazz
01:15Today's gonna be a great day
01:18I'm meeting up with some friends of mine
01:21Musicians
01:22My buddy Bill is packing his sax and taking the train
01:28There's Omer, the bass player
01:32He's just rolling along
01:35Carrying a bass makes traveling life out of the question
01:38Noriko always stops at the florist
01:43She's just got to have flowers for her piano
01:45Now let's see
01:48We said we'd all meet at this corner coming up
01:50Ah, here they are
01:53It always makes me happy to see these guys
01:57But wait
01:59But wait, where's Noel?
02:01Of course
02:02Noel's gotta catch a cab
02:03Can't walk with all those drums
02:05There he is
02:09The band's together now
02:13They're gonna play some live jazz
02:17The band's together
02:37The band's together
02:43Wow, that sounds great, Bill. Real smooth, everybody.
02:54We're just rehearsing, that's all.
02:55Well, if you're just rehearsing, I can't wait until the audience gets here a little later on.
02:59I'll see.
03:01I just love jazz music, especially when I hear it live.
03:06The rhythm is contagious, and I love just losing myself in that hypnotic groove.
03:12Now, the best thing about listening to jazz is that the music always feels different, even though it's a song you already know.
03:19It's kind of like driving to a place you've been before, but taking new turns and seeing new stuff along the way.
03:27So, okay.
03:29Motor's running. We're in the car. We're driving.
03:33And now, the melody and the chords will tell us where we're going.
03:42You probably recognize that melody, don't you?
04:01That's Brother John, right?
04:02Well, now, the musicians are going to take turns leaving that main road behind and take little side trips.
04:15What I mean is, the band is still playing the same song, but listen.
04:21Bill's making up a new melody right here on the spot.
04:24He's improvising.
04:26Now, it's Noriko's turn, and here's her new melody.
04:35And here we go back to the main road, the melody.
04:59Morning bells are ringing.
05:02Morning bells are ringing.
05:04When a player takes his or her own feelings and uses them to make up a new melody or rhythm that fits in a song, that's called improvisation.
05:22And improvisation is what makes jazz, jazz.
05:26And it doesn't just happen in music.
05:28Whether you know it or not, you improvise all the time.
05:31Well, let's say you're telling a story.
05:34And the girl said, I'm hungry, let's order a piece.
05:37You and your friends, that is.
05:38You make it up as you go along.
05:41Improvise.
05:42Once upon a time, there was this girl who lived in a cave.
05:46With her grandmother and her pet alligator.
05:49And the alligator could talk.
05:51Then one day, the girl was out walking her pet alligator.
05:55And they came upon a troll under a bridge.
05:59And they tried to go over the bridge, but the troll said, you have to give me a pizza.
06:04And the girl said, I don't have a pizza.
06:08And the alligator said, well, I don't have a pizza either.
06:13But I do have a toothbrush.
06:15But the troll said, why do I need a toothbrush?
06:18And the girl said, because her breath smells awful.
06:20Well, maybe you want to paint a picture.
06:30Pick your own brushes.
06:33Use the colors and shapes you want.
06:36Improvise.
06:50What about dancing?
07:20You hear some cool music.
07:22You get up on your feet.
07:24Then make up your own moves.
07:27Improvise.
07:28Improvise.
07:50Improvise.
07:55You hear some cool music.
07:57You hear some cool music.
07:58You hear some cool music.
07:59Yeah.
07:59You hear some cool music.
08:00I don't know.
08:03I don't know it.
08:03They are inside.
08:04They are inside the dock.
08:06They are inside the dock.
08:08All in the gate, and they are in there.
08:09But I don't have to feel great.
08:11They are inside the dock.
08:12And it is inside the tower, and it is inside theieme條 dad.
08:14All in theاء.
08:16And I don't know it.
08:17You end the booth.
08:18when you improvise you let your feelings tell you what to do here's a book about a jazz cat
08:42who did just that he took all the feelings in his heart and soul
08:46and he poured them out through his horn this is the very cool story of a very hip cat
08:55hip cat by jonathan lunder
09:03illustrated by woodley hubbard
09:07read by and you can't
09:12he was a hip cat
09:16a hip cat
09:17a cool cat
09:19living all alone in a riverside shack
09:23ooby doo john the sax man
09:25scat man
09:26the cool cat man
09:28one day he said to himself
09:31all i wanna do is make
09:34jazzy music
09:37so he picked up his sax
09:39what his friends called his axe and tipped his beret and said scat cat go
09:45go
09:46hip cat daddy all's got a horn to blow
09:50and that cat scat he hopped on the night train the faster than light train and in no time he came to his city by a bay
10:00it was a bebop rebop city a bongo congo roller coaster jazz in your bone city
10:08hip cat mows it along singing a song swinging his sax
10:16he slipped into minnie's can do on film all and said sweet minnie i want to blow my horn
10:29and our hip cat hero with a horn to blow
10:36blue
10:36his axe bobbed and swung screeched and skunked purred and bobbed
10:46the cats in the club said go cat go
10:51and hip cat wailed into that horn
10:56and the crowd went crazy
10:59the joint was jumping
11:03toes tapping
11:05and cats bopping
11:07chairs dancing
11:08and shadows popping
11:10still tapping his toes and bobbing his head
11:15hip cat stopped blowing and started lubid win instead
11:23his new fans loved him and many hugged him
11:28he was a bad cat
11:30a bad cat
11:35a mad cat
11:40a rad cat
11:43cat. But many could only pay him with peanuts. He hid all the jazz joints in town, looking
11:51for a gig that would pay the rent. He was getting tired of living in a tent. But the
11:58joints were owned by the top dogs. If cats wanted to make it, they couldn't fake it.
12:04He said, if dogs can run free, why not me? So Ooby-Doo played his sax under the bridge
12:13is. He played in the fog, and he played on the ridges. He played all day, and he played
12:20all night. He played for no pay, but he kept up the fight. One night, he slipped back into
12:30Minnie's can-do. Minnie said, Ooby-Doo, how do you do? Ooby-Doo said, I'm feeling kind
12:40of blue. Minnie said, sing it, you can do. Big Macs and some Minx cats, and cats and
12:50Minx were jamming on their axes, playing some licks. They said, who's that cat, the cat from
12:57the sticks? Then they remembered and shouted, Ooby-Doo, do what you do, let the cats out the
13:04zoo. So he blew his horn, all bluesy and forlorn. Then he started singing better than ever, all
13:15remembering the river where he was born.
13:18Oh, shabby-doo-ba-ba-ba-da-dee-ba-ba. Wabby-doo. Wabby-doo-ba-ba. Wabby-doo-ba-ba. Wabby-doo-ba.
13:29My cat's a kitty. Oh, wabby-doo-ba. Then Ooby-Doo blew everybody away with his horn. And pretty
13:37soon, word got around. Even the top dogs paid top dollar for Ooby-Doo to wail at all
13:45the clubs. He played in the hungry eye. Oh, he played in the hungry youth. He played in
13:53the purple onion. And when he was through, the crowds went, oh, why? Now, wherever he went,
14:04he went in style. He tore down his tent and paid his rent. He ate tall ice creams and paid
14:14all his bills. They called him the jazz magician, a great musician, a poet of the blues. And when
14:30he rolled the cable cars over the hills, his feet flew out in his shiny new shoes. Ooby-Doo shouted,
14:38oh, do what you love to do and do it well. Oh, he was a hip cat. A hip cat. A cool cat. A bad man. Rad cat. Ooby-Doo
14:58John had a sound all his own. And here's someone else with an unmistakable voice. And just
15:08like the hip cat, his favorite place to be is in front of an audience, playing a saxophone and sharing
15:14himself through his music. Tell the people who you are, Joshua.
15:18My name is Joshua Redman and I play the saxophone.
15:28And I grew up with music all around my house. Um, my mother grew up and I grew up with music.
15:35And I grew up with music. And you grew up with music being great, my mother grew up with music to
15:41I grew up with music all around my house, my mother was a dancer, and she loved all
16:03kinds of music.
16:05She loved jazz, she loved classical music, she loved rock and roll, African music, Indian
16:10music, it was all in the house, and before I actually played a real full-fledged instrument,
16:17I was trying to play music on anything I could get my hands on, I mean, I would try to drum
16:21out rhythms on tables and chairs, and if your head got in the way, I'd drum out a rhythm
16:25on your head, I mean, anything I could get my hands on.
16:32When I got to the fifth grade, I picked up the saxophone, and I basically taught myself
16:36how to play the saxophone, I never had a teacher, but my teachers were the records.
16:46Listening to people like Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, I mean, even
16:50though they weren't in my house showing me the fingerings, they were my teachers, because
16:55their music was there, their music was living, it was right there before me.
17:03For most of my life, I intended to be just about everything but a professional musician.
17:07Well, first I wanted to be an astronaut, I wanted to be a geologist for a while, and
17:12then by the end of college, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer, and I applied and was accepted
17:15to law school.
17:19I don't think I realized how important music was to me until I started to play it with great
17:23musicians.
17:24And after that point, it was almost as if I didn't have a choice, because it captured
17:37my emotions, it captured my soul and my spirit so much that I just had to do it.
17:49I think what's always attracted me to jazz, more than anything else, was the improvisational
17:55aspect of it.
17:57Because what jazz is about is improvising, playing what you feel at the moment.
18:04You can express anything you want through improvisation.
18:10You can express love, happiness, anger, fear, courage, pride, honesty, you name it.
18:18You can express emotions that there aren't words for, and that's what's so great about
18:25music is that it allows you to express things that you otherwise wouldn't be able to express
18:31through speaking to somebody.
18:49Jazz music, like all music, comes from your heart and from your soul and from what you hear.
18:57But jazz is a language, and in order to play jazz, you need to know the rules of the language.
19:07It's just like if you want to write poetry in English, for example, you need to know the
19:13rules of the English language.
19:14You need to know what a noun is, what an adjective, what a verb is, and how to put them all together.
19:19And the same is true with jazz, you need to know the rules.
19:29You need to know how chords fit together.
19:31The saxophone is a very, very intricate, complicated instrument, with a lot of different springs,
19:58pads, mechanisms.
20:01Just the paper.
20:02No matter how much love and care you give your instrument, things will break down from
20:07time to time and go wrong, and your sax needs to be worked on and fixed.
20:11I've found someone who is a master at repairing the saxophone.
20:16Dr. Rick's Place in the Village.
20:19Sometimes, when I'm hanging out, waiting for my saxophone to be fixed, I like to try all
20:30the different saxes in the shop, because each saxophone has a different characteristic,
20:34a different quality.
20:38Josh, you may want to check out this bass while you're here.
20:42Playing the big old bass saxophone is quite a challenge.
20:45You've got to put a lot of air through the instrument.
20:47Hold it.
20:56I can't even play a C, man.
20:58I like to try everything, from the biggest to the smallest.
21:01For me, to be a musician means to express your emotions, your feelings through sound.
21:20You can entertain people.
21:24You can put on a great show.
21:29But most importantly, I'm proud that I found a way to communicate to people, and to make
21:39people happy, and to make people feel.
21:42That's what music is about.
21:47.
22:02.
22:03.
22:06.
22:10how's everybody feeling good well we've got some great jazz for you here today so please
22:23give a warm welcome to some wonderful musicians miss noriko kama omer avital
22:31noelle paris and mr bill saxton ladies and gentlemen
23:01you know you might not know a lot about jazz it may be something totally new to you well here are
23:22three books about jazz and the people who play it that might just set you to swing and solid but
23:29you don't have to take my word for it hi do you like funny stories then you'll love this one it's
23:36called conga crocodile it's a story about a crocodile with a lot of rhythm ever since he was a baby he
23:43loved to bang on things no one could stand his banging except for grandma she thought he had
23:51rhythm so his grandmother got him a drum he played it all the time in the subway at the library
24:03and in the park i'm christian guzman and i think this book was fantastic i think you'll want to read
24:10it over and over again charlie parker played bebop it's music you can snap to and it's a really nice
24:17book called charlie parker played bebop charlie parker was a real saxophone player the pictures in this
24:25book go really well with the words and they're not what you'd expect dancing shoes lollipops
24:34bebop lollipop chickity chickity chickity chick boom bop boom bop zen zen the sounds in this book are
24:42really cool i'm asking i'm telling you it's really hard to sit still while reading this book so open
24:49it up and get ready to dance and sing fizzlin red hot bebop that's what willie jerome played with
24:57his trumpet on the rooftop he plays jazz music in this groovy book called willie jerome willie jerome
25:06is a boy of few words he speaks through his trumpet the only person who can understand his music is his
25:15sister judy everyone else thinks it's nothing but noise even his mama has no patience for willie's
25:26sound it isn't until mama really sits down and listens that she begins to understand willie's talent
25:37this book made me realize that musical talent comes from inside a person and that music especially
25:45jazz can sometimes speak for itself my name is adar and i really recommend this book
25:56i love jazz because every time i listen to it it surprises me a tune never sounds the same way
26:02twice and jazz really moves me because when the music's at its best those musicians are playing from
26:09the heart straight to me and straight to you too all you have to do is listen
26:22how about it for the bill saxton quartet
26:27now ladies and gentlemen we have a special treat for you today please welcome to the stage
26:31bill's son mr jameel saxton i'll see you next time
26:46the
26:50the
26:53the
26:55the
26:55the
26:59Today's Reading Rainbow books are
27:23Hip Cat by Jonathan London
27:26illustrated by Woodley Hubbard
27:28published by Chronicle Books
27:30Charlie Parker Played Bebop
27:34by Chris Roschka
27:35published by Orchard Books
27:37Conga Crocodile by Nicole Rubel
27:42published by Houghton Mifflin Company
27:45Willie Jerome by Alice Faye Duncan
27:49illustrated by Tyrone Geter
27:52published by Athenaeum Books for Young Readers
27:55an imprint of Simon & Schuster
27:58Reading Rainbow is made possible by
28:00a ready-to-learn television cooperative agreement
28:02from the U.S. Department of Education
28:05through the Public Broadcasting Service
28:07and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
28:11and by contributions to your PBS station
28:14from viewers like you
28:15thank you
28:16thank you
28:17thank you
28:20thank you
28:22the
28:24question
28:25you