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What to play for a new born child?


Pim

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Guys, yesterday my wife gave birth to our second son: Sef. We are very proud of this little wonder so just had to share the news. But now I am wondering: what should I play first for him? Should I give him an easy start with Bill Evans or some Chet Baker vocal album or should I play Coltrane’s ‘Live in Japan’ straight away?

Your advise please. :D

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2 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Incredible! Congratulations! 

My advice is to play whatever the first child wants to hear.

I’m not sure Black Eyed Peas ‘Boom Boom Pow’ is the first track I want to him to hear :P

1 hour ago, mjazzg said:

Congratulations to you all!  so that's why you were going to be busy...

Mal Waldron, surely or has he absorbed enough of that already in the womb?

Not enough unfortunately the wife has bad musical taste and dislikes all jazz music. So he needs to catch up. Mal might be a great option. Starting with some solo work, Meditations maybe, slowly building up to One-Upmanship :)

1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

Congratulations. 

Do report on what his responses are in the coming months/years.

Haha I will! Thanks.

 

42 minutes ago, BillF said:

Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, "A Child Is Born"

That’s a great idea. I’ll start with Chico Freeman’s version, that’s the first that enters my mind 

Just now, aparxa said:

Congratulations!!

600x337_ellington-such-sweet-thunder.jpg

You just made me aware of the fact I have to listen to his music more often!

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Congrats, Pim !!!  :tup

When my wife & I brought our first son home from the hospital, the first music he heard coming from my stereo was Coltrane

My second son got Ellington.

I chose relatively sedate tunes in both cases.  Didn't want to throw them in the deep end of the pool.  ;) 

 

Edited by HutchFan
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3 hours ago, HutchFan said:

Congrats, Pim !!!  :tup

When my wife & I brought our first son home from the hospital, the first music he heard coming from my stereo was Coltrane

My second son got Ellington.

I chose relatively sedate tunes in both cases.  Didn't want to throw them in the deep end of the pool.  ;) 

 

Great choices HutchFan. I remember my first son slept very well on Clifford Jordan’s ‘Glass Bead Games’. That one was on repeat the first week. 

 

1 hour ago, bresna said:

Congratulations Pim. I remember when my 2nd daughter was born. Two children does not just double the work for one - it triples it. :)

In my experience, it didn't matter much. They still listened to what they wanted to when they got older. I'm just happy they know a few Jazz tunes when I play them.

Haha it was the first thing I thought this morning: wow, two kids really is something else! Looking back now, the first one wasn’t that hard. I’m grateful that my other son, almost years old, is so sweet and caring for his little brother. 

I have no illusions that my boys will probably not be jazz enthusiasts and I fully agree: they should listen what they like. But I won’t hesitate to try and indoctrinate him with a little Trane here and a little Mal there ;)

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Congratulations on the baby. I suggest letting it get acclimated to quiet (or at least your home's version of it) before introducing outside sounds. Coming out of the womb and into our world is a bit of a transition!

Yeah that’s true. Was joking about Tranea Live in Japan. What I do think is funny is the fact my son doesn’t give a fly when I am playing some out there music by Coltrane, Noah Howard, Julius Hemphill or Sam Rivers for example. He just continues playing with his Lego like nothing is happening. 

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25 minutes ago, Pim said:

What I do think is funny is the fact my son doesn’t give a fly when I am playing some out there music by Coltrane, Noah Howard, Julius Hemphill or Sam Rivers for example. He just continues playing with his Lego like nothing is happening. 

Same. Mine barely notices. As far as he's concerned, there are two kinds of music: music with animals on the cover (principally Osibisa's first, the greatest classic in the canon of animal music), and music without animals on the cover (anything from Leonard Cohen to Machine Gun).

What's less great is that many of my most cherished videos of him as a baby can only be listened to with the volume down, because there's some kind of hellish noise in the background.  

Anyway, congratulations again!

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20 minutes ago, bresna said:

One thing I can say is that if you do continue to play Jazz when you listen to your music, your children almost have to absorb some of it. To this day, both of my daughters can identify "So What" about 10 notes into the intro and they usually sing, "So what" in unison at the right spots. :)

So true.

My wife LOVES the Sinatra-Basie album It Might as Well Be Swing -- and she played it frequently when my two sons were growing up.  Even though my sons are now in their 20s, both of them still know the words to every song on the album: "Fly Me to the Moon," "I Wish You Love," "I Believe in You," and all the rest.  

 

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True story, but hit play this while you read below...

So the (now former) choir director of our Unitarian church here in DC ~8 years ago had his and his wife's first baby -- they sent out a birth announcement by email, with pictures of the little guy (cute as a bug, btw, at least as far as newborns go).  One pic in particular, he was even smiling.

So about 2 months later, the choir throws a little afternoon party/potluck to celebrate the little one -- and everyone brings presents.  My wife and I got them some of the standard stuff, onesies, whatever, I forget.

BUT, I also put together, rather crudely in photoshop, a brand new CD cover for a fictitious "Arnold Schoenberg For Babies!" CD -- using an actual picture of said choir director's newborn son on the fake cover.  (You know, made up to look like those ubiquitous "Mozart for Babies" compilations, etc...)

And I wrapped the fake cover I made around the liners for an ACTUAL Arnold Schoenberg CD, slipped it back in the jewel-box -- which you are by now listening to above.  If you accidently clicked it out to YouTube and can see their title, it's NOT in fact for piano-four-hands (an error in the YouTube upload listing).  But it *IS* a lovely, contemporaneous arrangement/reduction of Schoenberg's wind quintet (op 26) -- arranged for piano & flute!! (which can also be performed equally well for piano and violin).

Anyway, it really is light, and dancy -- and (YES!!) -- it's ACTUALLY Arnold Schoenberg, but in a form that's perfectly appropriate for babies!!!!

Said choir director and I had discussed all sorts of 20th century classical music at various points off and on the prior two years (since I'd met him), so this was TOTALLY a gift that (in retrospect) he would have expected from none other than ME to have given him, for his brand new little munchkin.

That was the LAST movement of the quintet above, and here's the first movement (a little less busy).

To say I was rather proud of having come up with this idea, would be putting it rather mildly. :g

 

 

Edited by Rooster_Ties
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Wonderful to hear your news, Pim, and best wishes.

I don't know what to suggest for a newborn. Just pick quality, melodic material.

I can add my experience at a very young age. From about 4 onward, I was allowed to play my Dad's 78s on our clockwork phonograph. I enjoyed Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Jack Teagarden and others. He had some Django Reinhardt/Stephane Grappelli disks, which I couldn't stand because the playing sounded violent to my young ears and the phrases they played sounded unpleasant.

Later came Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong and, on the radio a lot, Nat Cole singing.

Of course, that was a different era, far removed from today.

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Congratulations, Pim. My advice is to continue playing the music you exposed the baby to in utero. The music will be familiar, while the sound will be improved given the new listening environment. Of course, don't be surprised if the baby's first words are, "Is that a remaster?" :lol:

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Playing music to a newborn. I'm not sure it makes a difference. I sure don't remember the music I heard as a toddler, let alone a newborn. Play what you would like to hear. . . your newborn will hear it, whatever it is. And I think that will be that.

Edited by jazzbo
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11 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Same. Mine barely notices. As far as he's concerned, there are two kinds of music: music with animals on the cover (principally Osibisa's first, the greatest classic in the canon of animal music), and music without animals on the cover (anything from Leonard Cohen to Machine Gun).

What's less great is that many of my most cherished videos of him as a baby can only be listened to with the volume down, because there's some kind of hellish noise in the background.  

Anyway, congratulations again!

I always thought I was the youngest guy around here but you’re probably in the same stage of your life as me? That’s great to hear :)

 

11 hours ago, HutchFan said:

So true.

My wife LOVES the Sinatra-Basie album It Might as Well Be Swing -- and she played it frequently when my two sons were growing up.  Even though my sons are now in their 20s, both of them still know the words to every song on the album: "Fly Me to the Moon," "I Wish You Love," "I Believe in You," and all the rest.  

 

Yeah children do always absorb something I guess? Records like ‘The Genius of Coleman Hawkins’, ‘Chet Baker with Fifty Italian Strings’ and ‘The Sound of the (Oscar Peterson) Trio’ are hardly considered classics but all 5 star albums to me that I still play a lot. That is probably because they were records my father used to play a lot :) I even bought a Miles Davis compilation called ‘Mellow Miles’ while I already own all of that music on separate releases. But hey, it was the record my father used to play most and I am not overstating when I say I could literally smell my parents house when I hear it that. 

10 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

True story, but hit play this while you read below...

So the (now former) choir director of our Unitarian church here in DC ~8 years ago had his and his wife's first baby -- they sent out a birth announcement by email, with pictures of the little guy (cute as a bug, btw, at least as far as newborns go).  One pic in particular, he was even smiling.

So about 2 months later, the choir throws a little afternoon party/potluck to celebrate the little one -- and everyone brings presents.  My wife and I got them some of the standard stuff, onesies, whatever, I forget.

BUT, I also put together, rather crudely in photoshop, a brand new CD cover for a fictitious "Arnold Schoenberg For Babies!" CD -- using an actual picture of said choir director's newborn son on the fake cover.  (You know, made up to look like those ubiquitous "Mozart for Babies" compilations, etc...)

And I wrapped the fake cover I made around the liners for an ACTUAL Arnold Schoenberg CD, slipped it back in the jewel-box -- which you are by now listening to above.  If you accidently clicked it out to YouTube and can see their title, it's NOT in fact for piano-four-hands (an error in the YouTube upload listing).  But it *IS* a lovely, contemporaneous arrangement/reduction of Schoenberg's wind quintet (op 26) -- arranged for piano & flute!! (which can also be performed equally well for piano and violin).

Anyway, it really is light, and dancy -- and (YES!!) -- it's ACTUALLY Arnold Schoenberg, but in a form that's perfectly appropriate for babies!!!!

Said choir director and I had discussed all sorts of 20th century classical music at various points off and on the prior two years (since I'd met him), so this was TOTALLY a gift that (in retrospect) he would have expected from none other than ME to have given him, for his brand new little munchkin.

That was the LAST movement of the quintet above, and here's the first movement (a little less busy).

To say I was rather proud of having come up with this idea, would be putting it rather mildly. :g

 

 

That’s a funny story! I must admit I never tried Schoenberg as I do not listen classical music that much. I know it has been scientifically proven that classical music has a relaxing influence on babies.

 

9 hours ago, Shrdlu said:

Wonderful to hear your news, Pim, and best wishes.

I don't know what to suggest for a newborn. Just pick quality, melodic material.

I can add my experience at a very young age. From about 4 onward, I was allowed to play my Dad's 78s on our clockwork phonograph. I enjoyed Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Jack Teagarden and others. He had some Django Reinhardt/Stephane Grappelli disks, which I couldn't stand because the playing sounded violent to my young ears and the phrases they played sounded unpleasant.

Later came Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong and, on the radio a lot, Nat Cole singing.

Of course, that was a different era, far removed from today.

Thanks! I would say Django would be a pretty accessible way to be introduced to jazz but that is with trained ears probably.

 

9 hours ago, sonnymax said:

Congratulations, Pim. My advice is to continue playing the music you exposed the baby to in utero. The music will be familiar, while the sound will be improved given the new listening environment. Of course, don't be surprised if the baby's first words are, "Is that a remaster?" :lol:

Two of my oldest sons first words were Mal and John, not kidding! Their portraits are in my listening room and he always said their names when he saw them.

 

8 hours ago, duaneiac said:

Congratulations Pim, and best wishes to your new & improved family! :)

Perhaps not as a first listen for the lad, but at some point this disc could come in handy for you overworked parents --

51eY0RtsDOL.jpg

Thanks! That’s a great idea. You inspired me for today’s first record: Paul Desmond’s ‘Live’ on Horizon records.

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Just now, Pim said:

I always thought I was the youngest guy around here but you’re probably in the same stage of your life as me? That’s great to hear :)

I picked up from somewhere that you may be a bit younger than me (I'm staring down forty, with quavering spirit), although certainly roughly the same stage kids wise - mine are 3 and 1.

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3 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

I picked up from somewhere that you may be a bit younger than me (I'm staring down forty, with quavering spirit), although certainly roughly the same stage kids wise - mine are 3 and 1.

Ah yeah than I am still the youngest but indeed: we are not in the phase of nights without any sleep!

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