An impressive artist who has spent most of her life in music, Ella Jenkins has since been named “The First Lady of the Children’s Folk Song”. Her voice, her soul and her experiences have magically poured out through song for nearly seven decades and for this she has an extensive repertoire to show for her life’s work!
Her career started in 1956 when she decided to become a full-time freelance musician. Initially she was a children’s musician, touring school assemblies in the United States and often sleeping in a different place each night. Encountering racial discrimination, her music often tackled and documented these experiences, but nothing ever stopped her! She continued to reach out through music to children and adults alike, undaunted by any obstacle that got in her way1
Late in 1956, one of her demos made it to Moses Asch, the founder of Folkways Records and he was impressed. By 1957 she had recorded and released her first album for the label and went on to release 39 more records for Folkways (and, more recently, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings). So influential and inspiring is her work that in 2004 she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award!
Who’s Gonna Be Your Man? is one of Ella Jenkins’ earlier recordings which originally featured on a record called American Negro Folk And Work Song Rhythms, Accompanied by the Goodwill Spiritual Choir, this 1960 album is a treasured collection of choral arrangements of spirituals, work songs and children’s rhymes. Listening to it now as I write, I am very much enjoying the soothing effect this sound has on me and I love the organic depth of Ella Jenkin’s music. Her voice carries a magic that requires nothing else to bring it alive…
This record, as is all of her music, is definitely worth a listen! I’ve pasted the whole album below, so I hope you enjoy!
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