16x02 - Hip Cat

[bunniefuu]

♪ Reading rainbow ♪

♪ Butterfly in the sky ♪

♪ I can go twice as high ♪

♪ Take a look ♪

♪ It's in a book ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪

♪ I can go anywhere ♪

♪ Friends to know ♪

♪ And ways to grow ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪

♪ I can be anything ♪

♪ Take a look ♪

♪ It's in a book ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪

♪ Reading rainbow ♪

Levar, voice-over:
cool.

I love jazz.

Today is going to be
a great day.

I'm meeting up with
some friends of mine--

Musicians.

My buddy bill
is packing his sax

And taking the train.

There's omer,
the bass player.

He's just rolling along.

Carrying a bass
makes traveling light
out of the question.

Noriko always
stops at the florist.

She's just got to have
flowers for her piano.

Now, let's see.

We said we'd all meet
at this corner coming up.

Ah, here they are.

It always makes me happy
to see these guys.

But wait. Where's noel?

Of course.
Noel's got to catch a cab.

Can't walk
with all those drums.

There he is.

The band's together now.

They're going to play
some live jazz.

[Jazz playing]

Wow! That sounds
great, bill.

Real smooth,
everybody.

We're just rehearsing,
that's all.

If you're
just rehearsing,

I can't wait until
the audience gets here

A little later on.

I just love jazz music,

Especially
when I hear it live.

The rhythm is contagious,

And I love just losing myself
in that hypnotic groove.

Now, the best thing
about listening to jazz

Is that the music
always feels different

Even though it's a song
you already know.

It's kind of like driving
to a place you've been before

But taking new turns and seeing
new stuff along the way.

So ok.

Motor's running.

We're in the car,
and we're driving,

And now the melody
and the chords

Will tell us
where we're going.

You probably recognize
that melody, don't you?

That's brother john, right?

Well, now the musicians
are going to take turns

Leaving
that main road behind

And take little side trips.

What I mean is,

The band is still
playing the same song,

But bill's making up
a new melody

Right here on the spot.

He's improvising.

Now it's noriko's turn,
and here's her new melody.

And here we go back
to the main road--the melody.

♪ Morning bells
are ringing ♪

♪ Morning bells
are ringing ♪

When a player takes
his or her own feelings

And uses them to make up
a new melody or rhythm

That fits in a song,

That's called
improvisation,

And improvisation is
what makes jazz jazz.

And it doesn't
just happen in music.

Whether you
know it or not,

You improvise
all the time.

Let's say
you're telling a story.

The girl said,
"I'm hungry.
Let's order a pizza."

Levar: you
and your friends, that is.

You make it up as you
go along--improvise.

Once upon a time,
there was this girl
who lived in a cave...

With her grandmother
and her pet alligator...

And the alligator
could talk.

[Laughter]

Then one day, the girl was out
walking her pet alligator...

And they came upon a troll
under a bridge...

And they tried to go
over the bridge,
but the troll said...

"You have to give me
a pizza..."

And the girl said,
"I don't have a pizza..."

And the alligator said, "well,
I don't have a pizza, either..."

"But I do have
a toothbrush..."

But the troll said,
"why do I need a toothbrush?"

And the girl said, "because
your breath smells awful."

Ha ha ha!

Well, maybe you want
to paint a picture.

Pick your own brushes,

Use the colors
and shapes you want--

Improvise!

What about dancing?

You hear some cool music,
you get up on your feet,

Then make up
your own moves--improvise!

When you improvise,
you let your feelings
tell you what to do.

Here's a book about
a jazz cat who did just that.

He took all the feelings
in his heart and soul,

And he poured them out
through his horn.

This is the very cool story
of a very hip cat.

Ann duquesnay:
he was a hip cat, a hep cat,

A cool cat,

Living all alone
in a riverside shack--

Oobie-do john
the sax man,

Scat man,
the cool cat man.

One day
he said to himself,

"All I want to do
is make jazzy music."

So he picked up his sax--

What his friends
called his a*--

And tipped his beret and said,
"scat, cat! Go, cat, go!

Hip cat daddy-o's
got a horn to blow."

And that cat scat.

He hopped on the night train,
the faster-than-light train,

And in no time,
he came to a city by a bay.

It was a be bop,
rebop city,

A bongo, congo, roller coaster,
"jazz in your bones" city.

Hip cat moseyed along,

Singing a song,
swinging his sax.

He slipped into
minnie's can do

On fillmore and said...

♪ "Sweet minnie" ♪

♪ "I want to blow my horn" ♪

[Applause]

And our hip cat hero
with a horn to blow...

♪ Blew! ♪

His a* bobbed and swung,

Screeched and skonked,

Purred and bobbed.

The cats in the club said,
"go, cat, go!"

And hip cat
wailed into that horn,

And the crowd went crazy.

Ahh, the joint was jumping--

Toes tapping
and cats bopping,

Chairs dancing
and shadows hopping.

Oooh! Still tapping his toes
and bobbing his head,

Hip cat stopped blowing
and started oobie-doing instead.

[Singing scat]

Oh, his new fans loved him!

Minnie hugged him.

He was a bad cat,

A mad cat,

A rad cat.

But minnie could only
pay him with peanuts.

He hit all
the jazz joints in town,

Looking for a gig
that would pay the rent.

He was getting tired
of living in a tent.

But the joints were owned
by the top dogs.

If cats wanted to make it,
they couldn't fake it.

He said, "if dogs
can run free, why not me?"

So oobie-do played his sax
under the bridges.

He played in the fog,
and he played on the ridges.

He played all day,
and he played all night.

He played for no pay,
but he kept up the fight.

One night, he slipped back
into minnie's can do.

Minnie said, "oobie-do,
how do you do?"

Oobie-do said, "uh,
I'm--i'm feeling kind of blue."

Minnie said, "sing it!

You can do!"

Big max and some minx cats

And cats in minks
were jamming on their axes,

Playing some licks.

They said, "who's that cat,
the cat from the sticks?"

Then they remembered
and shouted, "oobie-do!

Do what you do.
Let the cats out the zoo."

So he blew his horn,
all bluesy and forlorn.

Then he started singing
better than ever,

Oh, remembering the river
where he was born.

[Singing scat]

Then oobie-do blew
everybody away with his horn,

And pretty soon
word got around.

Even the top dogs
paid top dollar

For oobie-do to wail
at all the clubs.

He played in the hungry i.

He played
in the hungry you.

He played in the purple onion.

And when he was through,
the crowds went hog-wild!

[Cheering]

Now wherever he went,
he went in style.

He tore down his tent
and paid his rent.

He ate tall ice creams
and paid all his bills.

♪ They called him
the jazz magician ♪

♪ A great musician ♪

♪ A poet of the blues ♪

And when he rode
the cable cars over the hills,

His feet flew out
in his shiny new shoes.

Oobie-do shouted,

"Oh, do what you love to do,
and do it well!"

Ohh, he was a hip cat,

A hep cat,

A cool cat--

A bad, mad, rad cat...

Oobie-do john,
the sax man, scat man.

[Jazz playing]

Oobie-do john
had a sound all his own,

And here's someone else
with an unmistakable voice,

And just like the hip cat,

His favorite place to be
is in front of an audience

Playing his saxophone
and sharing himself
through his music.

Tell the people
who you are, joshua.

Man: my name is joshua redman,
and I play the saxophone.

[Playing jazz]

I grew up with music
all around my house.

My mother was a dancer...

And she loved
all kinds of music.

She loved jazz.
She loved classical music.

She loved rock and roll,
african music, indian music.

It was all in the house,

And before I actually played
a real full-fledged instrument,

I was trying
to play music on anything
I could get my hands on.

I would try to drum out rhythms
on tables and chairs,

And if your head
got in the way,

I'd drum out a rhythm
on your head--anything
I could get my hands on.

When I got into the fifth grade,
I picked up the saxophone,

And I basically taught myself
how to play the saxophone.

I never had a teacher,

But my teachers
were the records.

Listening to people
like charlie parker

And sonny rollins
and john coltrane--

I mean, even though
they weren't in my house
showing me the fingerings,

They were my teachers
because their music was there.

Their music was living.
It was right there before me.

For most of my life,
I intended to be

Just about everything
but a professional musician.

First I wanted to be
an astronaut,

Then I wanted to be
a geologist for a while,

And then by the end
of college,

I decided I wanted
to be a lawyer,

And I applied and was accepted
to law school.

I don't think I realized
how important music was to me

Until I started to play it
with great musicians.




And after that point,
it was almost as if
I didn't have a choice

Because it captured
my emotions,

It captured my soul
and my spirit so much,

That I just had to do it.

I think what's always
attracted me to jazz

More than anything else

Was the improvisational
aspect of it

Because what jazz
is about is improvising,

Playing what you feel
at the moment.

You can express anything
you want through improvisation.

You can express
love, happiness, anger,

Fear, courage,
pride, honesty--

You know, you name it.

You can express emotions
that there aren't words for,

And that's what's
so great about music.

It allows you
to express things

That you otherwise
wouldn't be able to express

Through speaking
to somebody.

Jazz music, like all music,
comes from your heart

And from your soul
and from what you hear.

But jazz is a language,

And in order
to play jazz,

You need to know the rules
of the language.

It's just like if you
want to write poetry
in english, for example,

You need to know the rules
of the english language.

You need to
know what a noun is,

What an adjective,
what a verb is,

And how to put them
all together.

And the same
is true with jazz.

You need to know the rules.

You need to know
how chords fit together.

The saxophone is
a very, very intricate,
complicated instrument

With a lot of different
springs, pads, mechanisms.

No matter how much love and care
you give your instrument,

Things will break down
from time to time and go wrong

And your sax needs
to be worked on and fixed.

I found someone who is a master
at repairing the saxophone--

Doctor rick's place
in the village.

[Saxophone playing]

This one. This one
right here.

Joshua, voice-over:
sometimes when I'm hanging out

Waiting for my saxophone
to be fixed,

I like to try all
the different saxes in the shop

Because each saxophone
has a different characteristic,

A different quality.

Man: josh, you may want
to check out this bass
while you're here.

Playing the big old bass
saxophone is quite a challenge.

You've got to put a lot of air
through the instrument.

I can't even
play a "c," man.

I like to try everything,

From the biggest
to the smallest.

For me, to be a musician
means to express your emotions,

Your feelings,
through sound.

You can entertain people.

You can put on
a great show.

But most importantly,
I'm proud that I found a way

To communicate to people

And to make people happy
and to make people feel.

That's what music is about.

How's everybody feeling?
Good?

Yeah!
Yeah!

Well, we've got some
great jazz for you here today,

So please give a warm welcome
to some wonderful musicians--

Ms. Noriko kamo,

Omer avital,

Noel parris,

And mr. Bill saxton.

Ladies and gentlemen,
the bill saxton quartet.

You know, you might not know
a lot about jazz.

It may be something
totally new to you.

Well, here are 3 books about
jazz and the people who play it

That might just set you
to swinging solid.

But you don't have
to take my word for it.

Hi. Do you like
funny stories?

Then you'll love this one.

It's called conga crocodile.

It's a story about a crocodile
with a lot of rhythm.

Ever since he was a baby,
he loved to bang on things.

No one could stand his banging
except for grandma.

She thought he had rhythm,

So his grandmother
got him a drum.

He played it all the time--

In the subway,

At the library,

And in the park.

I'm christian guzman,
and I think this book
was fantastic.

I think you'll want to read it
over and over again.

Charlie parker
played be bop.

It's music you can snap to,

And it's a really
nice book called

Charlie parker
played be bop.

Charlie parker was
a real saxophone player.

The pictures in this book
go really well with the words,

And they're not
what you'd expect.

Dancing shoes.

Lollipops.

Chickety, chickety,
chickety, chick.

Zin, zin.

The sounds in this book
are really cool.

I'm ashley,
and I'm telling you

It's really hard to sit still
while reading this book,

So open it up and get ready
to dance and sing.

Sizzling, red-hot be bop.

That's what
willie jerome played

With his trumpet
on the rooftop.

He plays jazz music

In this groovy book
called willie jerome.

Willie jerome
is a boy of few words.

He speaks through his trumpet.

The only person who can
understand his music

Is his sister judy.

Everyone else thinks
it's nothing but noise.

Even his mama has no patience
for willie's sound.

It isn't until mama
really sits down and listens

That she begins to
understand willie's talent.

This book made me realize
that musical talent

Comes from inside a person

And that music,
especially jazz,

Can sometimes
speak for itself.

My name is adar,

And I really
recommend this book.

I love jazz because every time
I listen to it, it surprises me.

A tune never sounds
the same way twice.

And jazz really moves me

Because when the music
is at its best,

Those musicians are
playing from the heart
straight to me...

And straight
to you, too.

All you have to do
is listen.

Whoo!

How about it for
the bill saxton quartet?

Now, ladies and gentlemen,

We have a special treat
for you today.

Please welcome to the stage
bill's son, mr. Jamil saxton.

I'll see you next time.

Today's reading rainbow
books are...

Hip cat by jonathan london,

Illustrated
by woodleigh hubbard,

Published by chronicle books;

Charlie parker played be bop

By chris raschka,

Published by orchard books;

Conga crocodile
by nicole rubel,

Published by
houghton mifflin co.;

Willie jerome
by alice faye duncan,

Illustrated by tyrone geter,

Published by atheneum books
for young readers,

An imprint of simon & schuster.