Ella Jenkins, known as the "First Lady of Children's Music," is a nominee for two Grammy Awards. She won a Lifetime Acheivement Grammy award earlier this year. "cELLAbration: A Tribute to Ella Jenkins" features top artists like Pete Seeger, Sweet Honey on the Rock, Riders in the Sky, Tom Chapin and Bill Harley.
(PRWEB) December 22, 2004 -- A new CD from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, "cELLAbration! A Tribute to Ella Jenkins," featuring some of the top artists performing new arrangements of songs by the "First Lady in Childrens Music," has won a 2005 Grammy Award nomination and several other national awards.
"cELLAbration! A Tribute to Ella Jenkins" was selected as one of five nominees in the Best Musical Album for Children" category (Field 18, Category 74). The award ceremony will be broadcast on February 13, 2005 on CBS TV at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT; more information about the Grammy Awards is at www.grammy.com. The honor was one of five Grammy nominations for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings this year. Ellas own recent Sharing Cultures with Children" CD release is another childrens music nominee.
"Child" magazine also cited "cELLAbration! A Tribute to Ella Jenkins" as one of the top 10 childrens music recordings of the year, saying the CD is proof of why [Ella] is truly a multigenerational musical force." Likewise, the judges for the nonprofit Parents Choice Foundation chose the CD as one of only five winners of its top-level Gold Award (see www.parents-choice.org). Oppenheim Toy Portfolio gave the CD a Gold award (www.toyportfolio.com) and the iParenting Media Awards (www.iparentingmediaawards.com) gave the CD a Hot" Award, citing its sparkling new renditions of Ellas timeless repertoire."
Ella Jenkins, who recently celebrated her 80th birthday, has raised at least two generations of children with her vast collection of songs and recordings. Now, top artists pay tribute to Jenkins stellar career, which was capped this year by a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy (www.grammy.com). Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, who themselves won a GRAMMY Award in 2004, produced cELLAbration! for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. This is the 10th time Cathy and Marcy have been honored with a Grammy nomination.
"cELLAbration! A Tribute to Ella Jenkins" features bright new arrangements of some of Jenkins most loved songs. The tracks represent a multicultural, multilingual mix with a vast range of musical styles including folk, salsa, country-western, Dixieland, ragtime, mariachi, and African rhythms. Artists include Pete Seeger, Sweet Honey in The Rock, Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer, Tom Chapin, Tom Paxton, Bill Harley, Red Grammer, John McCutcheon, Riders in the Sky, Mariachi los Camperos, Mike Stein, and Michele Valeri. Childrens voices also play a key role on this recording.
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States. The labels mission is the legacy of Moses Asch, who founded Folkways Records in 1948 to document peoples music," spoken word, instruction, and sounds from around the world. The Smithsonian acquired Folkways from the Asch estate in 1987, and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has continued the Folkways tradition by supporting the work of traditional artists and expressing a commitment to cultural diversity, education, and increased understanding.
An amazing catalog of Ella Jenkins recordings, including "cELLAbration! A Tribute to Ella Jenkins," is available from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. For more information, visit www.folkways.si.edu.
###
|
