Ella Jenkins

An enduring matriarch of children's folk music, Ella Jenkins' recording career has spanned seven different decades. Valued by parents and educators alike for her attention to topics like multi-culturalism and the environment in addition to preschool subjects like counting and spelling, Jenkins credited the rich musical culture of her Chicago upbringing for her inclusive take on music. Whether tuneful melodies or spoken passages, her warm, assured delivery never condescended on her three-dozen-plus albums, beginning with 1957's Call-and-Response, a set of American, Arabic, and regional African chants. In the '60s, Play Your Instruments and Make a Pretty Sound (1968) explored music itself, while 1976's We Are America's Children focused on diversity with her typical mix of traditional and original songs. Among her releases in the '80s was the activity-focused Looking Back and Looking Forward (1981), and 1992's Come Dance by the Ocean encouraged appreciation of the natural world. Issued in 2003, Sharing Cultures with Ella Jenkins incorporated multiple languages while spanning styles from blues to traditional Irish fare. Jenkins received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 and celebrated 60 years as a Folkways recording artist with the release of Camp Songs in 2017.