A Great Children's Album

Bruce Von Stiers

Allegra Levy has been listed as a rising star jazz vocalist in a recent Downbeat poll. She has received praise from the New York Jazz Daily and New York City Jazz Record. Ever since her debut album, Lonely City, Allegra has garnered critical acclaim and a fairly large fan base.

This year finds Allegra with a new project. It is an album that has children oriented songs. The title of the album is Songs For You And Me. Allegra wrote all of the songs on the album.

Helping out on the album were Jason Yeager on piano and organ, Andrew Baird on guitar, banjo and ukulele and Timothy Norton on bass. Neha Jiwrajka played the flute, glockenspiel and provided backing vocals. Sammy Wags was the drummer and percussionist. Tomas Cruz did backing vocals. And Katie Seiler provided backing vocals and did some whistling as well.

The first song on the album is Hello Song. It is a fun and melodic tune. She sings hello in various languages and that she is “happy to see you again.”

Noodles is a toe-tapping song about pasta. Spaghetti and mac-and-cheese are sung about in this song that has pasta being spilled all over the floor. It has a definite smile affecting effect.

It's So Hard To Be You is a great jazz infused song. It features one of my favorite saxophonists, Roxy Cross. The theme of the song is that you're going to be okay, even though life might not be so easy right now.

Los Animales has a Latin flair. It teaches children the Spanish names for various animals.

Clap Your Hands is a toe-tapping, hand clipping tune.

With the song, In The Tub, Allegra sings about washing away your troubles and having some fun in the tub. It has a fun trombone solo in the middle.

Hip, Hip, Hooray is a fast paced tune. But in the middle, things slow down for a tiny bit. And there is what sounds like a kazoo in there too.

I Got A Boo-Boo starts out with finger snapping, ala classic beatnik. But then the song moves into a soft and gentle, light New Orleans jazz sound.

A smile effecting, toe tapping music and lyrics can be found in Toodaloo Kangaroo.

The Way of the World is soft and gentle with a great horn background. It made me think of a light Chicago background sound or maybe Herb Alpert.

Not being able to go outside due to rain is the basis for the song Imagination. Building castles and thinking of wonderful things to do when we can't go outside. And that we can build a better world.

Stella For Star is a soft and gentle tune with light piano backing Allegra's smooth vocals. It also has the whistling that I mentioned earlier and a nice guitar solo.

The album closes with A Quiet Song. It is a mild and soothing song that very well could be played when trying to get a child to go to sleep.

My son was a big fan of Raffi who Allegra has said was one of the artists who inspired her.

As my son is now an adult, I'm not too familiar with what children's music is available. But if this album by Allegra Levy is any indication, there is still a lot of great music directed at children.

Songs For You And Me is a terrific children's album. It has fun, smile effecting lyrics and fantastic music. The album is well worth adding to your child's music collection.

Songs For You And Me is available on several streaming platforms such as Spotify. And it can be downloaded from Amazon and other retailers.

To learn more, visit Allegra Levy's website at https://www.allegralevy.com/

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© 2023 Bruce E Von Stiers