Gayle F. Wald’s Ella Jenkins’ biography sings Jenkins’ commitment to social justice and her important multicultural and participatory approach to teaching children music.
One of the most important music books of the year, a new biography about Ella Jenkins grants readers a rare glimpse into the life of one of the most underappreciated music giants of the past century: the bestselling artist in the history of Smithsonian Folkways Records, also known for recording Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger; a pioneering businesswoman and civil rights activist; and a critical voice in the evolution of music education.
The legendary children’s musician Ella Jenkins has (mostly) gotten the biography she deserves with Gayle F. Wald’s concise synthesis, This Is Rhythm: Ella Jenkins, Children’s Music, and the Long Civil Rights Movement. Wald, best known for her acclaimed biography of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, is a scholar well suited to the task of summing up and contextualizing Jenkins’ multifaceted life and career.
Wald extensively interviewed Ella Jenkins and her partner and manager, Bernadelle Richter, over the years leading up to Jenkins’ 2024 death at the age of 100, and Jenkins granted Wald access to her personal archives. The author highlights lesser-known aspects of Jenkins’ activism. In one striking example, Jenkins drew signs reading “NO NEGROES” in the windows of restaurants that wouldn’t serve her in the 1960s. This subversive act let other Black Americans know of businesses that they shouldn’t support, but it also shows the anger behind her public persona of kid-friendly amiability.
In addition, Ella Jenkins’ television appearances, including a Chicago television show also called This Is Rhythm in the 1950s, discussed African decolonization movements and multicultural approaches to music-making. The book also provides context for the Great Migration to the north by thousands of Black Americans in the 1910s and 1920s, as well as the rise of multiculturalism in children’s music in the 1990s.
The setting for most of Jenkins’ life was Chicago, and Wald’s research into the South Side of her childhood and the North Side of her later life adds depth to the narrative. Wald depicts the abuse Jenkins suffered in childhood, her relationships with her family, and the love Jenkins found with Richter with equal skill.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the book is its exploration of Christian Science, a faith to which Jenkins’ mother was deeply connected and that remained with Jenkins throughout her life. Wald explores this movement throughout “This Is Rhythm,” and it adds significantly to the picture of Jenkins’ personal life.
The book also discusses her relationships with fellow musicians and activists, including folk music legend Odetta and Big Bill Broonzy. Broonzy’s mentorship and Odetta’s financial advice about the music business prove crucial in the narrative. In addition, Wald captures Jenkins’ humility, gentle humor, and skill with children.
Ella Jenkins’ greatest musical contribution may be her belief in group participation — not only in playing music, but in everyone’s role in creating music and shaping cultural traditions. Her ideas for music education countered the prevailing Eurocentric focus on “the classics”, instead using call-and-response techniques to revolutionize American pedagogy for children.
The self-taught Jenkins shared her open ideas about music and musical participation with generations of children. As a child in the 1990s, I saw her in concert three times, and This Is Rhythm illuminates how Jenkins’ commitment to social justice helped lead to a more multicultural and participatory approach to children’s music beyond her prime years.
Ella Jenkins prioritized the process of creating music over polished results. For example, the book discusses her appearances in the 1970s and afterward on children’s television shows like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, where she encouraged others to learn that mistakes are part of the music-making process.
Jenkins was also important for her dogged pursuit of compensation for her recorded work. The book details numerous struggles over royalties with her label head, Moses “Moe” Asch, as well as her lifetime achievement awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and the Grammys in the last decades of her life.
Wald’s book paints a vivid picture of most of Jenkins’ career, but especially in the last quarter-century of her life. I would have appreciated more context on the continued Black freedom struggles in the U.S. and abroad, relating them to the long civil rights movement mentioned in the book’s subtitle. Most of the epilogue, which focuses on this period, presents a highlight reel of career achievements from the early twenty-first century. However, the book would have been even stronger had it added more historical context to the discussion of this era.
This is a minor quibble, though, as the book does crucial work fleshing out most of Jenkins’ life and career. This Is Rhythm is excellent at illuminating aspects of Ella Jenkins’ career and life. With this work, Wald gives Jenkins well-deserved recognition for her significant contributions to American culture.