Odyseey Award for Audiobooks WINNER

JAZZ
By
Walter Dean Myers

This audiobook by father and son is the education of music from the beginning to the end. James "D-Train" Williams and Vaneese Thomas read the 17 poems in this musical journey. The multiple narrators which means “more than one narrator, but not necessarily an actor for each character, nor recorded as an ensemble at the same time” lift the words from the pages and beg you to get out of your seat. This style of narration worked as with multiple narrators whose voices were strong and bold to accompany the multiple instruments that comprise the making of Jazz. I did not get bored or annoyed by the narrators’ tones and found no frequent or obvious intakes of breath. I also did not observe any accents that deterred from the story line. The narrators’ voices were good matches for this book and easy to listen to for the forty-three minutes and two seconds in duration. It was easy to distinguish between the two with obvious voice distinctions of male and female. They were able to use deep tones to match low notes and upbeat inflection with high notes. The narrators were also able to deliver appropriate verbiage and sounded quite “hip” with the language of Jazz. The pace of this audiobook varies to highlight dramatic elements of the different song selections. This exceptional pacing added to the overall tone of the story which made it pleasurable to listen to. As this was a Jazz audiobook, the music was throughout which was appropriate. Due to the briefness of this audiobook, compare to others, there are no end-pints of each CD. This audiobook was similar to the print version which offered an accompanying introduction, glossary of jazz terms, and timeline of jazz history to offer more depth to the understanding of Jazz. This audio was clear of hissing sounds, skipping or white noise. The packaging for the CDs was well-built and the cover was that of the print version.

Overall, I believe I enjoyed this audiobook the best because of my love for music and particularly Jazz. I don’t see how this book can be read without the audio version. It’s what brings the book to life. Readers will appreciate the audio because of the realness it gives Jazz. It’s like your favorite songs, sometimes they're just not the same reading it as a poem. Although we know most musical selections begin as poetry, this would be a perfect avenue to teach the fusion of the two art forms to students to produce a great work. If you like this book, try Dizzy by Jonah Winter.