White House Jazz Studio Education Celebration Also Features Child Prodigy Tony Madruga

Team Obama does a great job of mixing old and new, young and older. If Paquito D'Rivera is old school, Tony Madruga is new school.

I'm not suggesting that 14 year-old pianist prodigy Tony Madruga will perform "Summertime' today at the White House, in a jazz concert ending the first White House Music Series education celebration. The child prodigy Madruga will be playing with the Marsalis family and Paquito D'Rivera, and also Zach Brown, Kush Abadey and Elijah Easton.

Gershwin's "Summertime" is one of my very fav songs, and I located a YouTube video of Tony Madruga playing this classic. (See three more vocal versions of Summertime, from last June's Anne of Carversville J'Adore: Ella Fitzgerald, Janis Joplin and Fantasia Barrino)

Tony Madruga (10 yrs.) G Gershwin 'Summertime'

The series, which will also focus on country and classical music in later events, began this afternoon, with the Jazz Studio, taught by members of the Marsalis family and other music leaders. (See Jazz in the 'Hoods Delivers New Orleans Marsalis Family and Paquito D'Rivera's Afro Cuban Sounds to the White House.)

President Obama & Wynton Marsalis at the WH Jan. 21, 2009Wynton Marsalis is the music director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, one of several organizations that collaborated on today's event. They include: Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts; Duke Ellington Jazz Festival; Levine School of Music; New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts; SITAR Arts Center; Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz; WPAS Capitol Jazz Project.

Today's curriculum for 150 students includes an exploration of the core elements of jazz: American History and Jazz; The Syntax of Jazz; Improvisation; The Blues Experience and Jazz; Duke Ellington and Swing.

If only I could just occupy an inconspicuous corner of the room at today's event, I would be ecstatic! A