HEAR
 

Picnic Playground Tour

What: Rhythm Child sings songs about cherries and other tasties featured on Putumayo Kids's new CD.
Why: Let your belly dance.

When: Thurs., noon.

Where: Pershing Square, 532 S. Olive St., b/t W. Fifth & W. Sixth Sts., Downtown (213-847-4970).

Putumayo Kids Presents Picnic Playground

Feast on a collection of songs about food from around the globe. Catchy tunes like Kheswa's (South Africa) "Beautiful Day" and Jay Mankita’s (USA) "Eat like a Rainbow" will be on the tip of your tongue even when Junior’s not around.

LISTEN
 

Putumayo Kids Presents Picnic Playground Concert Tour

What: L.A.-based Rhythm Child Network sings songs from the eclectic new album about food.Why: It's all you can beat.

When: Sat., 1 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m.

Where: Sat., Oakland Zoo, 9777 Golf Links Rd.; Sun., Bay Area Discovery Museum, Fort Baker, 557 McReynolds Rd.

Happy Birthdays, Misters Presidents

Today is Presidents’ Day. Unless you work for L.A. Weekly, you probably get the day off. Well, bully for you. Do something fun for the rest of us schmucks. Like this –Norman Jones and His Rhythm Child Band at LACMA. Norman is joined by his boys Bailey, age 8, and Andre, age 3, in a show to celebrate our new president. This is an interactive gig – so all you kids, big and small, are gonna drum your little hearts out. LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., Mon., Feb. 16, 1& 2 p.m.; free. (310) 575-9372.

–L.M.

Putumayo Kids can sate families' musical appetites
By Michelle J. Mills, Staff Writer

Pack some nutritious snacks, grab your jackets in case it gets chilly and head to the Levitt Pavilion in Pasadena 7 p.m. Wednesday for the family concert, Putumayo Kids Presents Picnic Playground Featuring Rhythm Child.

Putumayo World Music has been releasing compilation CDs featuring sounds from around the globe since 1993. In 2002, it launched Putumayo Kids with the goal of offering the same wide selection of music for children.

The label has since released albums of lullabies and activity songs focused on different lands, animals, traditional dances and more. It has received Parents Choice Awards and other accolades and consistently donates a portion of sales from each effort to nonprofit groups which reach out to children.

Its latest album, "Picnic Playground," was released July 28. The effort includes world music with lyrics in English and other languages. Listeners will learn about nutrition with U.S. artist Jay Mankita's "Eat Like a Rainbow," visit a farmer's market in South Africa with Kheswa's "Beautiful Day," laugh at the tale of a boy who brings his cow to school during "Milch" by Germany's Donikki and more. A tour with various artists across the United States has been launched to celebrate.

Rhythm Child's song, "Bowl of Cherries" is also on "Picnic Playground" and they will be performing for the Pasadena show. The Los Angeles group was formed by drummer Norman Jones and his wife Heather and incorporates rhythm and movement to encourage children and parents to dance, sing and drum together. The show is interactive and you are welcome to bring your own percussion instruments to join in the fun.

If you feel inspired when you get back home, enter Putumayo Kids' recipe contest at www.putumayokids.com. You could win the label's complete collection and other prizes.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of "Picnic Playground" will be donated to Vitamin Angels, a charity which provides nutritional supplements to children around the globe.

Quoted from Mom Most Traveled:

07 November 2009,

I'm teaching preschool full time now, and MUSIC is a fun and exciting part of our play time.

I have two children in my class who excitedly ask me every day if we can turn on the music.

Once I oblige, they dance and scamper about with some nice flowing scarves that I added to the home corner of the class. We also like to play "freeze dance" and other musical movement games.

During snack time, I pick a relaxing sound track to serenade us as we eat. Music is a welcome part of my school day, and, of course, as the adult present, I want the music to have an appeal for the children but not drive me crazy with kiddie-ness. Thankfully, these days, quality children's tunes abound! Eat A Bowl Of Cherries, from Rhythm Child, is (naturally) infused with rhythm and dance-inducing. I am one of those Mamas who has a basket of percussion instruments right in our living room. My brother is a musician (and a drummer too), and I want to give my children an outlet for their musical talent (hey, sometimes these things are genetic.) So we love the songs on Eat A Bowl Of Cherries!Shaker Song, perfect, we have a shaker! Riding On The Bus, Deeds is my resident bus fanatic! 'Misunderstandings', what do you mean? (Haha!) Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, will this word indeed make me sound precocious? Or just weird? Bowl Of Cherries, the title track, is also included on Putumayo Picnic Playground, another favorite around here.

Posted by CanCan