Happy trails with Cow Bop’s posse

Hitching his thumbs around a wide belt buckle, Bruce Forman smiled widely at about 30 youngsters sprawled on the floor of the Boys & Girls Club’s gymnasium on a warm Tuesday afternoon.

Forman and his Western jazz band, Cow Bop, appeared at the club as part of its cowboy theme day. Children in flannel shirts and bandanas danced and giggled through the performance.

“Most kids’ relationship with music comes out of electronic boxes,” Forman said. Show by show, class by class, he hopes to change that.

Forman, the founder of the club’s popular JazzMasters Workshop program, was in town with his fellow band members: his wife “Pinto Pammy,” vocalist; drummer Mike McKinley; USC bassist Gabe Noel and fiddler Noah Freedman. They were joined by Laguna JazzMasters guitarist Ken Song.

At a typical weekly JazzMasters developmental workshop, young participants watch professionals jam and are then able to play the instruments themselves, with some help from the adults.

“They’re very curious,” Song said. “Some kids definitely have more interest than others, especially for particular instruments.”

Drums are popular, as are the guitar and piano, he said.

Forman, a longtime jazz guitarist, started out by offering a similar, more informal program in Carmel at the local community center. The program proved to be so popular that he was encouraged to create a nonprofit organization that would allow chapters around the country to develop similar workshops.

Now five years old, the program has chapters throughout California, as well as in New York.

After benefit concerts for the Laguna Beach school district, Forman opened a dialogue with Laguna Live about JazzMasters.

They developed a program at the Boys & Girls Clubs whereby member children can attend the workshops for free. The instruments are donated, and Forman uses his professional contacts to staff the workshops.

Forman was in town with Cow Bop as part of a trek up Highway 1 from San Clemente to the northern coast of the state.

“We left with $100,” Forman said. They also had no scheduled performances at time of departure. He described living off the support of friends and guests; the trip was meant to begin with no prearranged shows.

Apple, Geotrax and other organizations also helped with the trip; Apple provided blogging and podcasting assistance, which Freedman will handle, and Geotrax supplied a GPS device, whereby anyone visiting Cow Bop’s website could find out their exact location.

Since the commencement of the trip, they’ve scheduled shows in Palos Verdes, Big Sur, Carmel, Half Moon Bay and Fairfax.

Forman and Cow Bop have already taken two similar trips down Route 66, as well as a trip into California’s gold country.

As the current trip takes place in the summer, they were able to bring Freedman, a former workshop student.

The children on the floor were entranced by the area just over Freedman’s black clogs — he wore one blue sock and one yellow sock to the performance. “I’ve never liked matching socks,” he said.

Forman weaved instruction between jokes and songs at the kids’ concert.

“See if you can tell when it’s jazz and when it’s country,” Forman coached the youths, before beginning a new song.

“It’s cool having a young audience that appreciates the music,” Freedman said. A youth himself, 16-year-old Noah is a junior at Carmel High School. He has participated in jazz workshops at Stanford, and is a talented classical violinist as well.

“Pinto Pammy” emanated more than a touch of June Carter Cash, cracking jokes between songs and cheerfully talking with the kids.