By: Kirby Shaw, John Jacobson
Link to Purchase: https://www.halleonard.com/product/9970001/we-haz-jazz-musical
Run Time: 40 minutes
Appropriate for:
___Kindergarten
___1st Gr.
___2nd Gr.
___3rd Gr.
✅ 4th Gr.
✅ 5th Gr.
✅ 6th Gr.
Number of songs: 6 and a Reprise (7 total)
Number of Solos: 5 plus 2 rap solos: 7 total. Opportunities for more!
___Unison
___2 Part (Independent)
✅ 2 Part (Harmonizing)
✅ 3 Part (Independent)
___3 Part (Harmonizing)
___ 4 Part (Independent)
___ 4 Part (Harmonizing)
✅ Performance Track Available
✅ Accompaniment Track Available
✅ Singer Scores Available
✅ Choreography Included
Script:
___ Rhyming Dialog
____Non-Rhyming Dialog (easy)
✅ Non-Rhyming Dialog (medium difficulty)
____Non-Rhyming Dialog (hard)
Impressions/Ideas/Challenges:
“Riff” is the lead who is anxiously waiting for Thelonius Monk to appear. He LOVES jazz. During the production he interacts with four friends and random Jazzers from the past.
This show was fun, but HARD work for my 5th graders. Sequencing the dialog was our hardest obstacle. I changed up each scene so it wasn’t ALWAYS the same four students who interacted with “Riff” to give more students a chance to speak. I chose to change Riff’s name to the student who was portraying him. I also changed the non-jazzer names from “Susan,” “Ethan,” etc. to the actual names of the students saying the lines. If you choose to go the easier route for costumes by simply blowing up pictures of the Jazz icons, you could have multiple students play some of the more prominent Jazzers (Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, etc.) This would also help with sequencing each scene to ONE class group for ease of practicing during class ahead of time.
You will really, really, really want to look at the dialog before assigning parts! There is a lot of “banter” that the students didn’t get that can easily be removed. There also was a questionable scene that talked about “a tramp.” That particular line can be eliminated (it would include some before and after as well) without losing the entire scene’s message.
Dedicate a CHUNK of time to teaching this show! Honestly, I will be allotting 3 months for future showings. For my fifth graders, the harmonies are tight and the choreography was more advanced than what they were used to in the past. However, they LOVED this show and were sooo proud of their performances! Parents, school staff and administration LOVED the show as well! One parent told me she had a smile on her face the ENTIRE show!
Scenery: None required
Props: a set of headphones for “Riff”
Costumes:
Easy: blow-up pictures of each Jazzer for students to wear. Everyone wears black except “Riff”
Harder: students try to wear clothing that makes them look like the Jazzer they are portraying.
Individual Song Information/Suggestions:
We Haz Jazz!: Swinging show opener with three small solo opportunities. It adequately draws the audience into the production!
We Haz Jazz!-Exit Music: completely instrumental. I didn’t use it at all.
Let’s Jam!: This tune opens with two rap solos. Getting everyone to snap on the off-beat was a bit tricky, but most of them figured it out! There’s a fun three part section where students pretend to be different instruments in the band, each singing their own part with independent choreography. The kids LOVED that section…once they learned how to do their part! This song does have a “fake” ending. When we were practicing it in our music room, it worked great, but when we were working all together in mass rehearsals, it didn’t make any sense. So I simply cut the song where the accompaniment stopped for the FIRST ending…right before the third repeat of the refrain.
Work Song: Slave song. EASY, PEASY as PIE! One action! Just a couple of lyric changes with a 2-part echoing.
I’m Old Enough to Sing the Blues: The students who have dialog before this song sing about how “tough” it is to be a kid! It’s quite comical for adults! The rest of the cast has easy 2-part echoing and harmonies. Choreography is easy too!
Something to note!!: the lyrics for the second soloist talk about being grounded to 2022…if you’re performing this, you will want to change to 2032!
Up the M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I: Fast paced and VERY WORDY! To help the kiddos out, I made the first two verses SOLO opportunities. The rest of the cast would come in during the lyrics “up the M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I.” It worked great! I guarantee NO student will leave NOT knowing how to spell “Mississippi”!
Hobo Swing: This was our biggest struggle. I’m guessing we just ran out of time to work it fully! It’s wordy as well, but fun with a catching tune! The choreography was a little challenging and I made many adaptations to fit the skill level of my 5th graders.
Reprise: We Haz Jazz! Shorter version of the opener. I incorporated BOWING into this tune. I had half the students bow (and still sing) during the first verse and the other half bow (…still singing) during the second verse.
If you’ve directed this musical, PLEASE feel free to share any thoughts and adaptations you did. We’d all love to hear how you made it your own!
I’d also love to include YOUR CRITIQUE of any musical that you found to be successful or NOT successful! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScNHxH3wAo98Hu4jFsKbBM2lUYgqnVXLRUo7HcgZTQz1U7-jQ/viewform
Sounds Like Fun 