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This Jazz Man    by Karen Ehrhardt & R. G. Roth Amazon.com order for
This Jazz Man
by Karen Ehrhardt
Order:  USA  Can
Harcourt, 2006 (2006)
Hardcover
* *   Reviewed by Hilary Daninhirsch

This picture book is a celebration of jazz, and a tribute to all of the men who were, pardon the pun, instrumental in its creation. The book begs to be sung aloud, of course, to the tune of This Old Man.

Here are some sample lyrics:
'This jazz man, he plays one,
He plays rhythm with his thumb,
With a snap! snap! snazzy-snap!
Give the man a hand,
This jazz man scats with the band.
'

Just as the nursery rhyme does, this book counts jazz men up to the number ten. The fun, stick-figure-like illustrations show all of these famous musicians playing their various instruments. The end of the book features short biographies of ten famous jazz players,
including Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong, Charlie 'Bird' Parker, and John Birks 'Dizzy' Gillespie.

In addition to providing a creative twist on an old tune, This Jazz Man is a nice way to introduce young children to the main players in the jazz movement.

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