Grammy-award winning Dan Zanes & Friends, whose blend of folk, rock and world music inspires kids of all ages and interests to actively engage in music-making and creative expression, offers a festive collection of music perfect for the 21st Century learner and classroom. With Dan Zanes’ music, children embark on a multi-sensory journey around the world, by train or by rocket ship, mixing traditional with modern, exploring themes ranging from friendship, culture, and art, to history, languages, reading, geography, and the earth, our home.

Tap into the educational resources embedded in Dan’s catalogue of songs, the vibrant art work and books of each CD, together with lyrics and chords offered at danzanes.com, to inspire cultural curiosity, awareness, connections and collaboration across abilities, backgrounds, and ages – and have fun!

A multi-Parent’s Choice Award Gold winner, Dan’s collaborations feature instruments from the banjo to the buzuq, mandolin and jaw harp. Friends like the Blind Boys of Alabama, Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars, Natalie Merchant, Lou Reed, Angelique Kidjo, Sheryl Crowe, Andrew Bird, Suzanne Vega, Lila Downs, and of course, Jamaica-born MC Father Goose, join in to celebrate the tiny blessings at home along with the wonders of the great, big world.

DAN ZANESEducational Catalogue

Bring a world of friends and neighbors – bring music – bring traditions – bring a Grammy-award winner – into your classroom!

If you ever wanted to know what a “melting pot” sounded like, the answer just might be found here. The songs made by friends in Dan’s own neighborhood, from soul, hymns and Southern mountain music to Jamaican, Haitian, 19th Century American folk and modern rock and roll, will make you want to clap, tap, and get hold of any musical instrument you can – even if it means making your own, like some of Dan’s friends do!

Classroom Connection: In the song “Salaam,” you’ll hear the refrain “salaam aleikum.” This means “peace be with you” in Arabic and is a common way of saying “hello.” Find out how to say “Peace” and “Hello” in more languages. Share these by creating a poster – you might include pictures of corresponding countries and kids from around the world, or local musical instruments, foods or flowers – anything you like! And do any of them share the same word for hello and peace? Hint: start with Israel! Also, lots of places are featured in the various tracks and liner notes of Little Nut Tree, from “the basement,” to Jamaica. How many can you list?

LITTLE NUT TREE

2007 Grammy Award winner for Best Musical Album for Children co-released with Starbucks Hear Music. Like the train that keeps chugging amidst jets flying overhead, the folk music featured here joyfully connects listeners to the mysteries and complexities of the world around them – in a uniquely 21st Century way. Our “train” makes stops in the Hudson River Valley, South Africa, Mexico, the British Isles and the Woolworth’s counter during the struggle for civil rights. Listening to diverse sounds, you might get the sense that the music we make is only contained by the limits of our imaginations.

Classroom Connection: The songs in this CD come together like colorful stops on a memorable train ride. Does a train go through your community or, where is the nearest train? Do you know where its first and last stops are? And if you could ride a train anywhere in the world, where would it be? What would you like to explore on that ride? How many words meaning ‘train’ in English or other languages can you find?

Catch That Train! !From Dan’s fiddle and trumpet-playing friend Elena Moon Park spotlights modern, soulful, playful sounds with deep roots from China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Tibet. Listening to this collaboration by friends far and wide, you might consider the big question: “Global competition or global friends?” in a new light, and that light could come from paper dragon lanterns or fireworks on lunar New Year! Traditional Asian and western instruments join native languages mixed with English. Classroom Connection: After a few listens to this CD it’s hard not to sing along, even in Korean or Japanese, and have a new place in your heart for these cultures. How many new words in new languages have you learned from the songs and the insert book? Try using them in conversation with classmates. Write these down so you can remember and learn more.

Independent Music Award winner, showcases musical friends from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and other parts of the Spanish-speaking Americas, celebrating some of the vibrant culture that comes with immigration. Sing along in Spanish, add Spanglish, then get on your feet to dance cumbia, salsa, or merengue. Don’t know how? !No hay problema! The dancing will come naturally!

Classroom Connection: This CD can offer sounds to liven and broaden an immigration study unit, when reading literature from Latin America, and for world culture classes. For Spanish language classes start with the track Pollito Chicken offering instant translation of common Spanish words in this fun classroom rap that no one’s too old for.

Rabbit Days and Dumplings

¡NUEVA YORK!¡NUEVA YORK!

Celebrating the music that’s made after sunset, you might think of this as firefly music, rainstorm music, bat music – or come up with your own name. But this isn’t sleepy music. Some of the songs celebrate the universe after sunset, and others, like “Siyahamba” from South Africa or the American “Down by the Riverside,” offer reflective hymns expressing universal hopes and dreams. When classrooms get quiet after lunchtime, a little Night Time! jam might be just what you need – especially since night owls seem to perk up at bedtime!

Classroom Connection: Listen to the song “Smile, Smile, Smile.” Cut out pictures of diverse people with smiling faces from various (pre-approved) magazines or websites. Putting so many smiling faces together might evoke the song’s line “Your big heart circles the world every time that you smile” and help kids consider so many similarities across lots of different people – like our smiles! What else do these people share in common? Maybe hobbies, families, caring for nature, going to school ! this can turn into another long list and a creative project.

What makes you happy? Family? Dancing? Ferris wheels? A day at the beach? Singing along to old songs the adults learned as kids? This CD has all that and more, in a celebration of family song-making and appreciating every day joys and beauty, with special guests like Roseanne Cash and Loudon Wainwright III joining in. Can you sing along with some of the lyrics in Spanish, too?

NIGHT TIME!

Classroom Connection: In how many languages can you count to 10? Or 100? In the song “Yo-Yo Sweet Yo-Yo” count along at the very end, and the more you hear the song try learning more words in Spanish. All the tracks, especially Jump Up, Malti and All Around the Kitchen, a traditional favorite, are ideal for shaking off the sillies or dancing inside on a rainy day. Stand up, follow along with instructions for jumping, waving the clouds good-bye, flying around in a circle and much more!

FAMILY DANCE

Sometimes some of our favorite places might be the places that exist in our imaginations. Rocket Ship Beach is one of those special places. It’s Dan’s first family music collection and a perennial favorite, bringing together the talents of many friends, where no two tracks sound the same. Listening in helps “show not tell” the virtues of diversity, individual expression, hard work, a good laugh, a positive attitude, and memories of simpler times enjoying each other’s company.

Classroom Connection: When you search the title to Track 3, “A Bushel and a Peck” in Google, a unit of measurement comes up, telling you “44.04884 liters,” which is the equivalent of adding together “1 US bushel” plus “1 US peck.” These are units measuring dry volume. Who knew this traditional tune was also a math equation?! Try making your own song adding up units of measure, whether they use metric or “United States customary units” – inches and centimeters, pounds and kilos, arm span for a hug, or the number of jellybeans in a jar. Make it silly or serious, realistic or imaginary, like Rocket Ship Beach itself. In the favorite tune, “Hello,” we hear that “it’s the same bright sun, shines on everyone.” Dan inserts multi-lingual “Hello’s” at the end of the track. How many do you hear? Next time, say hello to your friends in a new language!

Packed with sing- and dance-along songs, this CD helps you welcome friends and share some music – and it’s all you need to start your own house party. For that matter, how about making it a classroom party or a playground party or a block party? With tracks rooted in history and tradition, from Valley Forge to Kingston, Jamaica, Japan, England and Australia, this house party joyously takes us to so many places!

Classroom Connection: Post a world map on the wall and mark all the places House Party takes you, whether it’s the origin of the song, the places referred to in the song, or a memory or idea it evokes. For example, Shining Star is about YOU – so maybe you’d like to mark where the kids in your class were born. And since the theme running through this CD touches on making music at home, draw the different types of homes a House Party might take place in, based on locations of the various songs. (Books you could use for this activity: If You Lived Here: Houses of the World by Giles Laroche, Houses and Homes (Around the World Series)  by Ann Morris, Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World by Anabel & Branabas Kindersley with UNICEF.)

Rocket Ship Beach

HOUSE PARTY

This CD is great for any age to connect with the folk foundations of American music, and can particularly be adapted for students of American literature and history. In homage to poet, biographer, singer and storyteller Carl Sandburg and The American Songbag, each track journeys through a scenario of Sandburg’s America. Listen and imagine the rise of the railroads or the sinking of the Titanic; the various “dialects” spoken across the young nation, the hardships, the inspiration – from gospel to the dance hall – that went into the formative American experience.

Classroom Connection: Listen to this CD as a history of the United States put to song and come to life. Choose any track and find Carl Sandburg’s original writing referenced in the song and liner notes. What can you infer from life in the19th and early 20th Centuries? Look up a historic experience or episode from one of the songs. For example, as the first definitive biographer of Abraham Lincoln, Sandberg’s campaign song  (Track 23) can launch a study of one of our most famous Presidents. And see the list at the back of the CD book for further reading on Carl Sandburg.

Shares traditional maritime songs that few of us get to hear – unless you’re a sailor, a stevedore or a shantyman! Navigating the shearing sheds and fishing communities of Australia to Nova Scotia, Cape Cod, Nassau and Liverpool, you might get to see (or be?!) a whale, mermaid, pirate or fisherman. Even if you just sing or hum about them, imagine a bygone era traversing choppy blue waters.

Classroom Connection: The oceans possess some of the earth’s most valuable and mysterious, yet endangered resources. Sea Music is rooted in an era where seafaring was a less industrial operation. Learn about marine ecosystems through a program like the World Wildlife Fund. What’s one area of ocean degradation you are concerned about and what can you do to make a difference?

Parades And Panoramas

Features Dan’s friend Father Goose a.k.a. Rankin Don and his favorite, Caribbean inspired tunes that get you dancing and singing in a happy place. So many musical genres interplay with the music from that region, and you hear them in this CD. Reggae, hip-hop, gospel, funk, soul, folk, Haitian Creole, and Jamaican mento – together they bring a ray of sunshine wherever they are played.

Classroom Connection: In this CD the tunes comes from throughout the Caribbean, also known as the West Indies. Like jewels interspersed across the blue sea, these various islands have distinct cultures and languages. Can you name at least five Caribbean islands and the primary languages spoken in each? Celebrate with a tropical fruit salad – read the labels on the fruit and see where they came from!

See Dan Zanes and Friends favorite tunes come to life on DVD. There’s the concert with an engaged live audience of parents and kids, as well as videos that include favorites from Sesame Street and Playhouse Disney. Next time your classroom has a few minutes between activities, pop in this video to start dancing and singing. The DVD offers a model of engagement with music, among multicultural friends. Great for pre-school through grade 3.

IT’S A BAM BAM DIDDLY!

All Around the Kitchen - Crazy Videos & Concert Songs DVD

323 dean st. suite 2 brooklyn, ny 11217 tel. 718.222.2442

Contact: Stephanie Mayersstephanie@danzanes.comwww.danzanes.com

Thanks to Homa Tavangar, www.growingupglobal.net, for writing the catalogue copy