Kalantari and Jazz Cats Sound Out for Summer

What is it with children's recording artists and their dogs? The last three CDs I've reviewed have been chock full of impassioned declarations of affection for man's best friend. Raffi even put his dog Luna on the front cover of his new CD, DOG ON THE FLOOR. Lucy Kalantari and the Jazz Cats continue the trend on their latest collection, ALL THE SOUNDS, with "Ain't No Dog Like Mister."

Young, impressionable minds are the perfect vessels to hear and interpret different genres of music. It's too late for me – world music makes me break out in hives. But my kids are still asking why I don't get any more CDs from Putumayo. So they clearly got a taste and wondered why that particular gravy train stopped. On the bebop and blues front, Lucy and crew dutifully direct a dozen ditties for your preteen brethren on ALL THE SOUNDS.

Speaking of passion, the Jazz Cats have taken on this purely American music form as their mission. The 10 tracks on ALL THE SOUNDS show the range of jazz stylings, from the bilingual "La Cosecha" to the swing of "Sounds of Summer" to the rep break by Grammy winner Secret Agent 23 Skidoo on "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"

Lucy has an affinity for the holidays (um, she released an EP called IT'S THE HOLIDAYS!). The Halloween-themed "Howl to the Moon" would have been right at home on that disc. And who couldn't use a little classical (for me, it has to be very little). Lucy's son Darius (5 1/2) contributes some cello on "I Know A Little Fellow."

ALL THE SOUNDS is a breezy, cheerful sprint through the jazzy reveries of your children's minds. New York (and Brooklyn, Lucy's home base) will never pass for New Orleans. But if you feel it's high time for ragtime and your kids are ready to dip their toes into Dixieland, ALL THE SOUNDS is an engaging gateway.

You can see Lucy Kalantari and the Jazz Cats at Lollapalooza in Chicago this week! Thursday, August 2 at noon and Friday, August 3 at 1:30 pm. Click here for information.

ALL THE SOUNDS is available on August 3 from Lucy Kalantari's website, Amazon, and Apple Music.

Here is the video for the song, "Our Garden":