A big reputation for entertaining little listeners

By Lynne Heffley

Feb. 2, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

The Grammy Awards are yet to be decided, but the Recording Academy’s 2004 lifetime achievement award recipients have been announced and one person on the list is breaking new ground: Ella Jenkins.

Included among fellow recipients Van Cliburn, the Funk Brothers, Sonny Rollins, Artie Shaw and Doc Watson, 79-year-old Jenkins is the first children’s recording artist to be honored.

She is being recognized “for a lifetime of service to children’s music and the high quality of her work throughout all of these years,” said jazz artist Kurt Elling, vice chairman of the Recording Academy board of trustees and chairman of the lifetime achievement award review committee.

“She’s been a huge influence on musicians of many different genres, since she’s reached so many people when they were young. And,” he added, “Ella’s such a lovely person. Even if she wasn’t a musician, you’d want to come up with something.”

Ella Jenkins has never been hip. With her trademark baritone ukulele, harmonica, birdcalls and astonishing repertoire of traditional and original songs, she has simply sung and performed for countless children, parents and children’s educators.

She has done so since 1956, traveling throughout the United States and countries around the world, and appearing on such preschooler TV havens as “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “Barney & Friends.”

Her evergreen source material is multicultural folk music and the rich stew of church songs, jukebox pop, big band jazz and her uncle’s harmonica blues that she grew up with as an African American on Chicago’s South Side.

“I even introduce children to people like Cab Calloway, the ‘Hi-De-Ho Man,’ ” Jenkins said from her Chicago home. “I used to go to the Regal Theater, and Cab Calloway, Count Basie -- all these famous orchestra and band people and tap dancers -- came there. It was part of my childhood, and today’s children still find it of interest.”

Jenkins, who turns 80 in August, enjoys engaging children during concerts and workshops -- and just about anywhere she travels.

“I find that children don’t think about what color you are, how old you are or what your background is,” she said. It’s the musical sharing and a genuine interest in them that matters. “You just recognize each one as an individual and respect each child. They can discern very early in life whether you are for real.”

“Ella has a particular inclusive and sing-along participation style that makes every child a musician,” said Anthony Seeger, professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA. Seeger, the nephew of folk legend Pete Seeger, is also director emeritus at Smithsonian Folkways, Jenkins’ record label since 1957.

“It’s very different from singing a song to children,” he said. “Ella sings with children. And she has taught generations of teachers of young children how to engage and involve children in this way.”

“Her nickname, ‘the first lady of children’s music,’ just about sums it up,” said Cathy Fink, a multiple Grammy Award nominee with musical partner Marcy Marxer -- this year the duo is up for best musical children’s album for its “Bon Appetit!” CD.

Fink, like countless members of the National Assn. for Educators of Young Children who attend Jenkins’ concerts with the fervor of rock fans, considers Jenkins an important role model for her ability to engage children with her musical mix of education and entertainment.

“Ella didn’t set out to be rich and famous. She’s earned every bit of recognition,” Fink said. “The bottom line is, it’s in her heart to use music to make kids happy and to help kids and teachers and parents get along in life.”

Sales of Jenkins’ children’s recordings for Folkways over the years contributed to the label’s survival, Seeger said, and its ability to record and preserve the work of multicultural artists and such folk legends as Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly and Pete Seeger.

Jenkins’ work also spans a large chunk of recording technology. Her just-released CD is “Sharing Cultures”; her first album for Folkways, “Call and Response, Rhythmic Group Singing,” was released in 1957 as a 10-inch LP. It was then re-released over the years as a 12-inch LP, a cassette and, finally, a CD.

“Sometimes,” Jenkins said, with obvious enjoyment, “a kindergarten teacher will have one of the old LPs and a child will say, ‘My teacher has the biggest CD you ever want to see.’ ”

Dan Zanes, former lead singer of the 1980s rock group the Del Fuegos, and now a leading children’s music artist himself, considers Jenkins’ influence vital to his own growth in the field. He grew up absorbing her “handmade sound” and found it just as engaging when his own daughter was born.

“Her music is so strong and it holds up so well, and the new releases are just as good as the early ones,” he said. Taking his daughter to an Ella Jenkins concert for the first time a few years ago was a revelation.

“People of all ages were excited and enjoying themselves and happy to be a part of it. And there she was, just one person with a baritone ukulele.

“I imagine that she’s as full of energy now as she was when she started recording,” he said, “because she’s totally fired up and ready to rock.”

“I always say that children are my favorite people,” Jenkins said, “because when they extend a hand, it’s a warm and genuine handshake. An embrace is a real embrace, a smile is a genuine smile. And if [adults] don’t pollute things or negate things for children, they’ll meet us more than halfway.

“People always say, ‘Ella, you give so much to children.’ I say, ‘Well, children give a lot to me and that keeps me going and wanting to do more.’ ”