Reviews
"The intimacies of a singular life; the sweep of Civil Rights history; the geo-cultural journey of the blues, American folk, or Afro-Caribbean musics; the telling detail, lovingly noted, of a particular song or performance - Gayle Wald writes in all these registers with wonderful insight and sensitivity. This is more than a vivid portrait of Ella Jenkins, though it is certainly that. It is a fully realized exploration at the intersection of biography, politics, culture, and history, especially that zone where art and liberation meet and give form to one another."
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- ​Matthew Frye Jacobson, author of Dancing Down the Barricades: Sammy Davis, Jr. and the Long Civil Rights Era
​​ "Big props to Gayle Wald for authoring such an important historical accounting of the legendary Ella Jenkins, whose work emerged in a time that was not always kind to women musicians. I wish I had known of Ella Jenkins when I was a kid starting my journey in rhythm, but feel a kinship with her in light of her activism, commitment to education and to rhythm!"​​​
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- Terri Lyne Carrington, four-time Grammy award-winning drummer, producer, and educator
Booklist Starred Review!
Wald’s (Shout Sister Shout, 2007) stellar biography recounts the singular life of Ella Jenkins (1924–2024), beloved “First Lady of Children’s Music” and civil rights activist. A self-invented “rhythm specialist,” conga drum in hand, she revolutionized children’s music and music education with simple, playful, call and response songs embedded with a “fugitive civil rights pedagogy.” Jenkins grew up poor but culturally rich in Chicago’s vibrant Bronzeville neighborhood, absorbing the rhythms of the African diaspora from playground chants to Cab Calloway and the examples of accomplished women like Gwendolyn Brooks.
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Through “sonic play,” based on traditional American and world music, she encouraged Black children to take pride in their heritage and modeled cultural pluralism for all. Over 60 years, she released 40 acclaimed albums and connected with audiences in classrooms and community centers and on concert stages. Wald brings Jenkins’ “iridescent genius and generous spirit” alive in this revealing portrait of a self-determined, gay Black woman.
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Drawing on interviews and extensive personal papers, she tells Jenkins’ story in intimate, revealing detail, framed in the sweeping cultural and political changes of the post-war civil rights movement. Jenkins’ music may not have changed the world, but her rhythms continue to model a much-needed “antidote to its cacophony.”
— Anne Foley
