JoJo and the Pinecones
I'm always happy to add a little jazz to my kindie mix, so I was pleased to find the New York City band JoJo and The Pinecones throwing their porkpie hat into the kids music ring.
The band is the daytime alter ego of Joelle and the Pinehurst Trio, featuring singer Joelle Lurie, which plays jazz across NYC's finer venues, but as most parents will tell you, 10 AM can be just as messy as 10 PM.
Lurie and fellow Pinecone Ben Gallina developed their debut kids' album Night & Day through a residency at Lincoln Center Education, and the album merges their solid vocal and instrumental jazz chops with songs more focused on kid concerns. The result is an appealing sampling of traditional jazz and pop standards (such as "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'," "I Can See Clearly Now," and the title track) mixed in amongst some originals (including "It's Time To Wake Up," featuring Jazzy Ash, and "I Spy," a duet with Tim Kubart). And the whole things winds down with a string of slow ballads that will serve as a nice transition to nap time.
Night and Day album cover
Their latest video, "Breakfast for Dinner," is definitely on the pop end of the spectrum, so you're not going to get many jazz vibes from this track, but the video is fun, and song itself has one of the niftier last verse "plot twists" you'll hear.
So I'm happy to premiere the video here. Night & Day is released on January 20. (Preorder on iTunes here.)
JoJo & The Pinecones - "Breakfast for Dinner" [YouTube]
