My Kids
I loved to tease or joke with my kids when they were growing up. I am proud to say that my son has carried on the tradition.
Here’s one little antidote about my son.
There were times when we sat around the kitchen table and I would say to my son, “I know what you did so you better confess. He would say, “ I didn’t do anything.” “Come on it’s too late I already know”. This would go on for a minute or two, and then he would say OK, OK but I didn’t mean it ,and he would confess to some stupid thing and I would just laugh and he would get so angry that I fooled him.
My Daughter
When my daughter was about four years old, when she said, or did something or misbehaved and I told her if she didn’t stop I would spank her. She stood there defiantly and said,” If you hit me I am going to call the police and report child abuse” What? Child abuse? What do you know about child abuse? Apparently she picked it up from TV.
When my kids were young I would take them on music jobs with me. One summer I had a jazz gig playing in between races at Roosevelt Raceway.
On one of those nights, Ray Nance of Duke Ellington fame was the featured guest star. Ray would play violin or a pocket trumpet. Whatever he played, it was great fun to be around him and listen to a master. Ray would also sing. He loved to sing Take The A Train and the audiences loved it.
After the job, Ray asked me if I could give him a ride. I said of course I could. We were all in the car with Ray in the front seat and my two kids in the back. I asked Ray where he was going. He told me to drop him of at the nearest E train. At once my daughter responded, “I thought you took the A train”
Family
There was the time I was baby-sitting my kids and their cousins. One of the cousins, Scott, started talking like Donald Duck. I asked him who taught him how to talk like that and he answered very seriously, “Donald Duck “
Sometimes my son, my daughter and I would sit around the breakfast table and make believe we were a jazz band. I would pick a tune (when they were young they knew the jazz standards). My son sang the drum parts. My daughter sang the bass parts and I would imitate all the different instruments’ taking solos. We would laugh and we had a great time. My ex-wife would come and say,” you are all crazy”. Yeah, but we were happy crazy.
Teaching
A few years back, as a teaching artist, I was teaching a second grade class.
I had a distinct program, which was teaching literacy through songwriting.
No matter what age group, I always started with the Blues. I would play a blues and I would give them a short history and then we would go about and write a down-home blues. We would move on to what I called a Rock & Roll Blues, which was Rhythm & Blues from the fifties. Next came a Jazz Blues. It was important to me that the kids understood the difference and recognized the difference.
When teaching a Jazz Blues, I would incorporate the use scat singing as an example. Of course the kids would laugh, but they really enjoyed themselves.
One day after demonstrating how to scat, I asked for volunteers to try and scat a blues. A young black girl came up and to my surprise she was able to do it and do it well. When I asked her how she learned how to scat, she told me her parents played jazz in the house all the time.
The next student to come up was a young white boy. He immediately got into it and was just as good as the little girl before him. When I asked him where he learned to scat, he calmly answered from Bill Cosby. He watched the Bill Cosby show with his parents and Bill always had jazz and scat singing on his show (The power of TV).
It’s important that we guide our kids and make sure they are watching, listening and learning things that matter to help them grow and reach their potential as human beings
Till Next Time
Dom Minasi