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Oh, how you hate hearing that! Wait til you’re grown. You
need to get bigger. You can’t do that now, you’re too
little. But why not? Why can’t you start dreaming of
someday right now, while you’re still a kid? As
you’ll see in the new book Trombone Shorty by Troy
“Trombone Shorty” Andrews, illustrated by Bryan Collier,
dreams can come true at any age.
In the New Orleans neighborhood called Tremé, “you could
hear the music floating in the air” day and night. The house
where Troy Andrews grew up was filled with music, too, and
Troy loved the trombone. He hoped to be a musician some day.
Each year, when Mardi Gras rolled through Tremé, Troy and
his neighbors would dance along with the bands in the
parades. Man, that was fun! There were balloons, beads, and
music, which “made everyone forget about their troubles for
a little while.”
That also made Troy want to become a musician even more, so
he and his friends created instruments from odds and ends
they found around Tremé; Troy was happy to find a beat-up
trombone, and he fixed it up good. That’s the best part of
being a musician: you can make music from almost anything.
So he was ready. At the next parade, he grabbed his
trombone, jumped right in, and started marching with the
band. Because he was a little guy and the trombone is a big
instrument, Troy’s brother gave Troy the nickname of
“Trombone Shorty,” which is what everybody called him from
then on.
“I took that trombone everywhere,” Troy says, “and never
stopped playing.”
He even took it to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival,
and he played along with the musicians. He was so loud and
so good that Bo Diddley called Trombone Shorty onstage and
asked him to jam.
Trombone Shorty knew then that he could have his own band,
so he did. Every day after school, his band practiced their
music until they were able to perform “all around New
Orleans” – and they still perform today!
Lately, you’ve played air guitar to a Prince song, and were
a drummer on your kitchen table. If your kids caught your
love of music, they might likewise dream the dreams found
inside the award-winning Trombone Shorty.
With the same laissez les bon temps rouler
vibe you get from merely standing on a New Orleans sidewalk,
author Troy Andrews tells of coming up poor and finding
riches in his city’s songs. It’s a story that’ll make your
children want to dance with music they can almost hear from
the pages of this book; those silent songs are underscored
by illustrations from Bryan Collier, himself an
award-winner.
Be sure to check out the author’s notes. Show your kids the
pictures.
While you could surely read this tale aloud to a
two-year-old, I think kids ages four-to-seven will like it
better. If they love music, especially, Trombone Shorty
will be a book they won’t be able to wait for.
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