STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
A lot of people grew up hearing Ella Jenkins songs - like this one.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU'LL SING A SONG AND I'LL SING A SONG")
ELLA JENKINS: (Singing) You'll sing a song, and I'll sing a song. Then we'll sing a song together. You'll sing a song, and I'll sing a song in warm or wintry weather.
INSKEEP: Ella Jenkins was known as the first lady of children's music. The Grammys honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award. And she died yesterday at the age of 100. NPR's Andrew Limbong has this remembrance.
ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: Ella Jenkins was inspired by a lot of things - the folk tradition, the civil rights movement, the church. In 2013, she told NPR that when it comes down to it, music is just about sharing what you love.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
JENKINS: Whatever you happen upon with something that you feel that you really like, I'd say listen to it and listen to it often. And if you want to repeat or imitate, do it in a way so that when you're sharing it, someone else is going to think it's beautiful, too.
LIMBONG: A lot of her songs had a signature style, call-and-response. I say something, and you say it back to me. The idea came to her from a kind of unexpected source. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, 1924. She and her family eventually moved to the South Side of Chicago, where one of the hottest acts in the clubs at the time...
(SOUNDBITE OF CAB CALLOWAY SONG, "MINNIE THE MOOCHER")
LIMBONG: Cab Calloway.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
JENKINS: Some of what he did was a call-and-response. When he'd say, hi-dee, hi-dee, hi-dee, hi.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MINNIE THE MOOCHER")
CAB CALLOWAY: (Singing) Hi-dee, hi-dee, hi.
UNIDENTIFIED BACKUP SINGERS: (Singing) Hi-dee, hi-dee, hi.
JENKINS: Then you'd say back, ho-de, ho-de, ho-de. And so I started doing this not only with his songs. I thought I would make up a few songs myself. And the children can learn very easily by imitating, following the leader and then pretty soon be able to teach it themselves.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOOM-BAH-EE-LERO (WITH INSTRUMENTS)")
JENKINS: (Singing) Toom-bah-ee-lero, toom-bah.
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR #1: (Singing) Toom-bah-ee-lero, toom-bah.
LIMBONG: Ashli Christoval grew up listening to Ella Jenkins. She's now a children's musician herself as Jazzy Ash. Christoval says that Jenkins made her feel both proud and inspired of her heritage in the face of what she calls a daunting history.
ASHLI CHRISTOVAL: Across the board, African American music, Black music diaspora, is sort of approached in a really dark place. And granted, Black American history has a really dark part of it. But I think that every culture has a right to be celebrated.
LIMBONG: And Ella Jenkins celebrated every culture.
CATHY FINK: You can travel around the world with Ella Jenkins through her songs.
LIMBONG: That's Cathy Fink, a Grammy-winning children's musician and a friend of Jenkins.
FINK: Ella traveled the world and performed all over the world. And as she did, she would learn from the people that she was with. And she would learn words, or she would learn a song from another country. The first thing she'd say to a taxi driver is, what's your name, and where are you from? And then she'll say, well, tell me about your country. She sees meeting each person as an opportunity to make a friend and learn something.
LIMBONG: And what she learned, she taught to generations - of parents and teachers and children.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HAMBONE")
JENKINS: (Singing) Hambone, hambone, where you been?
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR #2: (Singing) Hambone, hambone, where you been?
JENKINS: (Singing) Round the world, and I'm going again.
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR #2: (Singing) Round the world, and I'm going again.
JENKINS: (Singing) Hambone, hambone...
LIMBONG: Andrew Limbong, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HAMBONE")
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR #2: (Singing) Hambone, hambone, where's your wife?
JENKINS: (Singing) In the kitchen, cooking rice.
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR #2: (Singing) In the kitchen, cooking rice.
JENKINS: (Singing) Hambone, hambone, have you heard?
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR #2: (Singing) Hambone, hambone, have you heard?
JENKINS: (Singing) Papa's going to buy you a mockingbird. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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