Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane

by Carole Boston Weatherford, Sean Qualls (Illustrator)

Overview

A lyrical picture book biography of John Coltrane that focuses on his childhood.

Young John Coltrane was all ears. And there was a lot to hear, growing up in the south during the 1930s: church songs, preachers praying, music on the radio, and the bustling of the household. John was surrounded by all kinds of vivid noises that shaped his own sound as a musician. With vibrant words and glowing colors, Carole Boston Weatherford and Sean Qualls compose an amazingly rich hymn to the childhood of jazz legend John Coltrane.

Before John Was a Jazz Giant is a 2009 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book and a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250822703
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	190,236
Product dimensions:	7.70(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Carole Boston Weatherford wrote the Caldecott Honor book Moses: When Harriet Tubman Lead Her People to Freedom. She lives in North Carolina.

Sean Qualls illustrated the widely acclaimed biographies The Poet Slave of Cuba and Dizzy. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York.

Reading Group Guide

Before John was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane

Classroom Activities

Before John was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane demonstrates how the sounds John Coltrane heard as a child influenced his musical compositions, playing, and style. Here are some activities that introduce young children to the basics of listening to and playing with the sounds around them. The first three topics introduce the three basic components of music: dynamics (loud and soft), rhythm, and melody. The following activities help children to think about everyday objects in a different way – in a musical way.

Introducing Soft and Loud, High and Low

Ask the class to speak softly, then loudly. List soft and loud sounds they hear everyday. Speak with a high, squeaky voice and then with a low voice. Ask the class to do the same. List high and low sounds they hear everyday.

Introducing Rhythm

Clap out rhythms to the syllables in the children's names.Clap out a simple rhythm like short-long, short-long and have the children repeat the pattern with their hands or with a pencil on a desk or other surface. Try other patterns like long-short-short, long-short-short, or long-long-short, long-long-short.

Introducing Melody

Fill 6 jars or glasses with different levels of water. Using a metal utensil like a spoon, demonstrate that the pitches vary. Strike one glass and then another. Ask the class if the second sound is higher or lower than the first.Label each of the glasses with a different color. Prepare a set of strips of construction paper using the same colors on the glasses. If the class is small, hand out a set to each child. If the class is large, form small groups and have the children do this activity together. Ask the children to arrange the strips in any order they like. Have them glue the strips on to a large piece of paper. Each child now has a "melody" made out of the colors.Play each child's melody on the glasses, striking the corresponding glass for each color strip. You can string together several children's sets of strips to create a longer musical piece.

Listening to Everyday Sounds

Ask the children to close their eyes, be very quiet, and listen to all the sounds in the classroom and outside the classroom for 30 seconds to a minute. List all the sounds they hear. Ask the class:
• Can you describe the sound?
• Can you imitate the sound?
• Do you know what is making the sound?
• Is the sound soft or loud? short or long? high or low? If possible, take a walk with the class outside, and explore sounds the children hear using the same questions as above.
• Ask each child to select one sound that they will describe, imitate, and draw about. With their eyes blindfolded, see if the children can recognize their classmate's individual voices.

Making Sounds with Everyday Things

Walk around the classroom, stopping at ordinary objects to see what kinds of sounds it can make (include crumpling and creating other sounds with paper, pencils, a pencil sharpener, a stapler, a book, chairs, clock ticking, venetian blinds, etc.) Ask one child to make sounds with each object. Have the children sit in a circle. Gather everyday things in the center of the circle (bubble wrap, beans or rice in a bag or container, wooden spoons, velcro on a sneaker, items found in classroom while doing the above activity.) Ask the children to close their eyes and identify the objects by their sound.Do a show and tell of objects found at home that make sound (for example, items you shake: a baby rattle, a jar full of beans.)

Using Your Body to Make Sounds

Ask the children how many ways their bodies can make sounds (clapping, snapping, tongue-clicking, slapping different parts of your body, foot stomping, making a kissing sound, etc.)Ask the class what sound do people make when they're happy or sad.

Activities to do While Listening to John Coltrane's Music

Play a John Coltrane recording from the "Suggested Listening" list in the book. Ask the class how the music make them feel. Happy? Sad? Excited? Sleepy? Ask the class to clap or move to the beat.Using the beat of the music, ask the class to move crayons or markers on paper. Do the same using another piece of music with a different beat. You can also do this activity with clay (tapping, making ridges, or pounding on it) or with fingerpainting.

Homemade Instruments

Kids love to make music. There are lots of simple instruments that kids can make. Here are a few ideas:

Use old tin foil pans to make cymbals, attaching strings as handles.Fill film canisters or other plastic containers with dried beans, popcorn, or rice to create a shaking percussion instrument.Make a harp from an old shoebox by stretching different sized rubber bands around the box. To make it into a guitar, attach a ruler or stick to the back of the box. Plucking the rubber bands produces different sounds.Use a paper towel holder as a tube that children can hum into to produce kazoo-like sounds. They can decorate the tube with markers, too.Make a tambourine using two paper plates. Have the children color the bottom of the plates. Then place beans, rice, or pebbles between them. Staple the plates together and shake!Make a comb buzzer by folding a piece of tissue paper over the tooth edge of a comb. To play, hum through the tissue paper.Ask the children if they know anyone who plays a musical instrument or sings.Ask the children to talk about family members that play instruments or sing.Have children describe the insturement and how it is played.If possible, ask the family member to demonstrate to the class.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 3-6- "Before John was a jazz giant,/he/was/all/ears." He heard "hambones knocking" in a pot on the stove, steam engines, tap dancers, preachers, sobs, cheers, and birdsongs. And he heard music-his father's ukelele, the family Victrola, church hymns, the community band, jitterbug music, and big bands playing on the radio, "blue notes crooning his name." So he picked up the saxophone and poured all the sounds he'd heard into music all his own. Weatherford's evocative poem traces Coltrane's influences simply and stunningly, her redolent voice as smooth and vivid as jazz itself. Qualls's double-page, full-bleed illustrations combine acrylic, collage, and pencil in surrealist renderings of young Coltrane soaking up the sounds surrounding him. A muted palette of rich hues suggests the smoky jazz moods he would create, the sounds dreamily dancing through the air amid streaming ribbons of music. A full-page biography of Coltrane concludes the volume, along with a list of recommended listening and further reading, making this picture book appealing to all ages studying jazz or African American history. Pair it with recordings of Coltrane for added appeal to a wide audience.-Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS

School Library Journal

Weatherford's compressed poetic homage to Coltrane's early influences relays biographical details through metaphors evoking sound: "Before John was a jazz giant, / he heard Grandpa's Sunday sermons, / Mama playing hymns for the senior choir, / and the scoutmaster's call to join a band." Five other stanzas, each beginning with the titular phrase, both convey 1930s references (Bojangles, big bands) and presage Coltrane's musical arc to come ("he heard . . . a saxophone's soulful solo, / blue notes crooning his name." Qualls's mixed-media full-bleed spreads employ a color palette (blue, sienna, ochre, white) and sonic iconography similar to (and not exceeding) his much-praised work in Dizzy. Circles and bubbles populate each spread, standing in for the emanations of Grandma's cooking pots, the setting-sun sadness of a family funeral and sweet possibility, as John "picked up that horn." Layout conspires nicely to deliver Weatherford's final couplet over two full spreads: "Before John was a jazz giant, / he was all ears." (author's note, selected recordings, reading list) (Picture book/biography. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews

Weatherford's evocative poem traces Coltrane's influences simply and stunningly. Qualls's muted palette of rich hues suggests the smoky jazz moods he would create.” —School Library Journal

“Even children who are unfamiliar with jazz in general and John Coltrane in particular may find their interest piqued.” —Horn Book

“Will echo with contemporary children, who will recognize the music in their daily lives.” —Booklist

“This is as much a subtle invitation for children to listen to their own worlds as it is a Coltrane biography.” —Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

From the Publisher