wish famili

The Family Jukebox

Piano Lady Wendy Rollin, out with a new CD, encourages families to bring more music into their lives.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor

T

he room was filled with
teachers wiggling their
ears, their noses twitching,
all acting like bunnies.
Funny bunnies, to be precise.
Leading the bunny pack — a.k.a. a
group of teachers at the 2004
Conference of the Michigan
Association for the Education of
Young Children, held last March in
Grand Rapids — was Wendy Rollin.
Rollin, music teacher at the Echo
Park Learning Center in Farmington
Hills, wrote "The Funny Bunny"
song and dance, which she taught
while serving as a presenter at the
conference. The snappy number
entreats listeners to "wiggle your
ears" and "wiggle your nose" like the
"cool ... funny ... Funny Bunny," and
Rollin even got the instructors up
and dancing, doing "one unforget-
table version of the song. The whole
room was hopping."
Most parents have about as much
interest in dancing as they have in
joining the Polar Bear Club for an
outdoor mid-winter swim. But
Wendy Rollin believes music should
be a central part of family life and, to
that end, she has just released her sec-
ond CD, The Family jukebox.
Rollin says the idea for The Family
Jukebox started at the Echo Park
school.
"It occurred to me that it would be
wonderful to have something to
which the whole family could dance
together," Rollin says. "I would see
how much the kids loved it when
their parents sang and danced with
them. Children are always so much
more excited when parents partici-
pate."
So she began work on a new CD
especially for families, a collection of.
15 songs that encourage moms and
dads, grandmas and grandpas, aunts
and uncles, and all the children to
make music and dance together.
Rollin wrote almost all 15 songs on
The Family Jukebox and plays instru-
ments on all of the numbers. Unlike
her Music is My Friend CD, where
Rollin sang lead vocals on many of
the songs, The Family Jukebox features

.

Wendy Rollin: "Music has intrinsic beauty and feeling.

a myriad of voices. They include an
aspiring Broadway performer, a voice
student at the Cincinnati
Conservatory of Music, a media
voiceover artist and a few longtime
friends and colleagues.
The Family Jukebox includes three
novelty songs and dances (like "The
Funny Bunny"), Rollin's twist on tra-
ditional numbers like the waltz and
the polka, and a few of what Rollin
calls "inspirational" numbers, such as
her favorite, a song for making up
after a fight, and another called "Sing
Creatures, "about sharing the planet.
Writing music, says Rollin, who
performs locally as the Piano Lady, "is
always a gift. You get an idea and first
you play with it. Then you work on
it, and finally you polish it with craft.
"You let the idea float happily in
your mind as it gathers momentum
and heads in certain directions. It
takes preliminary shape, then you
refine it.
"I'll think of a melody and lyric and
I will sit at the piano and play it over
and over again. Or I'll close my eyes
and sing it in my mind. Finally, it

comes to be.
"There is a certain mystery in it; it's
not merely practical craft. That's part
of the joy of it."
The "gift" — the inspiration — can
even be a bit of real life.
Consider Rollin's boogie number
starring Bubala the dog. In fact, Rollin
says, Bubala is a pet dog, "a docile
Doberman who happens to belong to
Jim Hiller, my biggest fan." Hiller, of
Hiller's Markets, met Rollin at a chil-
dren's birthday party where she was
performing. He has since become her
business partner.
The CD's "Sweet Child Waltz" was
inspired by an earlier melody, while
"Brand New Start, "the song about
being friends again after a fight, came
straight from my heart and out
through my fingers.
A native Detroiter, Rollin grew up in
a home where "music really filled the
air. My mother played and still plays
the piano. My late father played the
violin. Music was part of life and we
listened to everything and we played
everything.
"We heard opera, Latin dances,

"

))

sonatas, and my parents would do the
cha-cha-cha in our kitchen. We were
very fortunate, my sister and I. It was
a lovely place to grow up."
Such sweet memories inspired
Rollin to keep music in the lives of
her sons, Benjamin, now a blues-and-
jazz guitarist about to receive his
MBA from the University of Chicago;
and Andrew, a drummer and student
at the University of Michigan-
Dearborn.
When the children were little, "we
danced to everything, from Stevie
Wonder to the William Tell Overture."
Rollin hopes other families will do
the same.
Music, she says, has "intrinsic beau-
ty and feeling in a world that some-
times promotes not-so-beautiful
things."
The piano is her favorite instrument
because "for me, it's magic. It holds
the keys to self-expression and harmo-
ny with others." She encourages
adults and children alike to try their
hand at playing the piano -- or any
instrument. Take lessons, she suggests.
Stage a small concert at your house
for family and friends. Or invite a
musical performer for an in-home con-
cert, Rollin says.
"Go to a concert, see a show. What
could be more delightful than intro-
ducing your child to musical theater?
"Sing to your children and sing with
your children," she says. Dance regu-
larly, "in the living room or out on the
deck."
Rollin still loves a variety of music
— in the past week she has listened to
the Hershey Felder Broadway album,
singer-songwriter Dar Williams, coun-
try star Emmylou Harris, jazz singers
Kenny Rankin and Nina Simone, and
Chopin.
Now that summer is approaching,
there's even more time for music,
Rollin says, and families should make a
"listening list. Try different genres:
jazz, opera, klezmer, Broadway, folk,
blues,", she suggests. "It's all there, just
waiting for you and your family."

❑

"The Family Jukebox" may be :pur-
chased. on Wendy Rollin's Web site
vvww.wendyrollin.corn

%TN

5/28
2004

29