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Blues music is America's music, and young people especially, should know about the musical heritage of America and of the Blues. Educating them on how America's music has evolved and how the Blues forms the roots of today's popular music is important to us. The recognition and exposure that Blues music has recently received from advertising, and most recently from the award winning movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" has led more people to appreciate the sound, style, and art that defines the Blues.
In 1978, the City of Chicago public schools introduced the "Blues in the Schools" (BITS) program which is still going strong more than two decades later and has since spread all around the country and even around the world. In this program professional blues musicians are invited into schools to conduct classes on the history of the blues, famous blues musicians, different styles of blues, and how to write, sing and perform the blues. The ABS is proud to have such a program in place as well. In our program, local blues musicians combined with a culturally diverse all volunteer staff comprised of former educators, music professionals, and other with a genuine interest in child development, are invited into schools to conduct different programs tailored to specific age groups. While our program is in its infancy and just now beginning to obtain the required financial support required to put on these programs, we have been successful in conducting these session to several grateful audiences in many of the greater Atlanta School Systems.
The ABS feels it is beneficial to expose children whose musical experience may be limited to just what they hear from older siblings or what they may see and hear on commercial radio and TV to additional forms of traditional music. We attempt to provide a small amount of the history behind the blues, a small amount about how the Blues has evolved to the music of today, a touch of music composition education all mixed together with a whole lot of fun.
If you are interested in joining the fun and providing a Tax Deductible Donation for financial support for our program click on the link below. If you would like to volunteer to participate in our presentations, arrange for one of our events at your school or just to let us know what you think of our efforts, please contact us via e-mail at absmail@mindspring.com or call our ABS hotline at (404) 237-9595 . Your message will be passed on to the appropriate BITS or ABS representative who will be happy to answer any questions about or discuss our programs with
you.
The Blues In The School crew has just returned from our latest presentation at Sandtown Middle School in southwest Atlanta, where we met with an 8th grade group of budding musicians and singers from the band and choir. They may not have realized they liked the blues when we got there, but by the time we left, we had some serious young Blues fans!
As always, we started with a bit of history and background on the Blues and were pleasantly surprised to learn that these students were well versed on all types of music and were already big fans of The Temptations, Earth Wind and Fire, and Ray Charles, so taking them to the roots was not such a stretch.
Of course, the best way to learn about the music is to listen to the music and the band did not disappoint. Presenter Big Robert T told the students why he loved the blues and introduced them to the band: Carlos Capote on harmonica, Chicago Joe Jones on Guitar, John Schwenke on bass, and Andre Burbridge on drums. It didn’t take long for the Blues to settle in and the students jumped right in to sing and play along.
A little bird told us that Ms. Crawford, the choir instructor, had some pipes on her and before she knew what hit her, she was performing “Route 66” for her students. But wait – what was that? Not to be outdone by Ms. Crawford, Mr. Young, the band instructor, had retrieved his trumpet from the back room and joined in.
Thanks to all the students and faculty at Sandtown Middle School for welcoming Blues In The Schools. We look forward to returning soon.
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