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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nAcoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band<\/em> is a new one-hour, jazz-infused special premiering Thursday May 1st on PBS Kids. Creator Kwame Alexander adapts from his 2011 book. Julius Harper serves as executive producer. It\u2019s the story of a young rooster who wants to join jazz animal greats in making fantastic music. This special, and 20 accompanying shorts available on PBS Kids platforms, will show kids the power of collaboration and creating a beautiful tune. (This Animation Scoop Q&A<\/em> was edited for length and clarity.)<\/p>\n Jackson Murphy<\/strong>: Kwame, what fascinated you about the experience of taking your 2011 picture book and turning it into this one-hour special for PBS Kids?<\/p>\n Kwame Alexander:<\/strong> The story began in a place called Tuscany. I was on a writers\u2019 retreat in 2010. And every morning I\u2019d walk by this farm that had a bunch of roosters and pigs and animals running around having a blast, like it was a party. I really looked forward to my morning walks to see these animals. I began to say, \u201cWhat if they were partying? There would have to be music.\u201d It\u2019s gonna be live music\u2026 and it\u2019s gonna be jazz. I created this world. And now 14 years later, to see it come full circle. It started on a farm, it went to the page, and now Jackson, it\u2019s literally on the stage. We\u2019re bringing it back alive and making it electric for kids. It\u2019s pretty thrilling.<\/p>\n JM<\/strong>: Julius, you\u2019ve worked on Disney, DreamWorks and Netflix animation content. How does it feel to add PBS Kids to your impressive list with this special?<\/p>\n Julius Harper<\/strong>: It\u2019s really a privilege, Jackson. Working at GBH with PBS has been awesome. Here, we\u2019re really focusing on how we\u2019re putting goodness out into the world. Of course we\u2019ve got to be fun and entertaining, but the one thing that sets GBH and PBS content apart is it\u2019s about putting goodness out into the world. There\u2019s meaning behind it. The goal of \u201cAcoustic Rooster\u201d is to introduce a new generation of kids to the wide world of jazz music. We have an opportunity here to spark a love for a classic American music genre that has deep historical roots in American history and Black history. It\u2019s really such a privilege to work with such a talented group of people who really know, understand and value that.<\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> Nice. Kwame, Acoustic Rooster loves music so much. His enthusiasm for jazz is infectious. He loves what he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n KA:<\/strong> It mirrors my own life. I\u2019ve fallen in love with jazz so many times. The first time was with my father. Not to mention the beautiful woman I played the music for\u2026 I invited her over for dinner and played her music and she fell in love, and we got married.<\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> And Julius, you show the dynamic between Acoustic Rooster and the bandmates he meets. Here\u2019s the young guy coming in, and here are the veterans who want to share their wisdom and knowledge\u2026 teach Acoustic Rooster a little more about what it means to be a jazz performer.<\/p>\n JH<\/strong>: It\u2019s great that you picked up on that because that\u2019s one of the main themes of both the \u201cAcoustic Rooster\u201d special and a lot of the shorts. Our idea was to bring that down to something that would be relatable to a preschooler. We look at it through the lens of collaboration. How can we work together to create something greater? So it\u2019s really about life skills at that level, when you\u2019re talking about three and four year olds. How do I play along with friends? How can we get along to create something that we both like? How do we take turns? That\u2019s call and response. How do I learn to follow the beat but also improvise and add my own special sauce to things? They\u2019re foundational social concepts about how to get along with others.<\/p>\n JM<\/strong>: You\u2019re right. Kwame, over the hour there\u2019s this arc Acoustic Rooster has about collaboration and working with others. It takes time. It takes steps to learn about working with others.<\/p>\n KA<\/strong>: I\u2019m a big fan of edu-tainment. Let\u2019s inform. Let\u2019s educate. And let\u2019s also make sure we\u2019re entertaining. We create these opportunities for kids to watch a beautifully animated, high quality music, feel good show and laugh\u2026 and be awed, and have no idea that they\u2019re learning.<\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> And you\u2019re so right that this is a visually fun special. It\u2019s vivacious.<\/p>\n JH<\/strong>: It was a real privilege to work with the team at Global Mechanic to find the look of the \u201cAcoustic Rooster\u201d show. We wanted something that pops and feels alive. That\u2019s what jazz music is. Jazz is not only a musical movement, it\u2019s a visual medium as well. There\u2019s a certain bright, colorful, poppy, energetic movement focused flow to the art. Finding ways to celebrate that jazzy look within the design of a preschool show allowed us to find something that actually looks like nothing else in the preschool space.<\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> You guys talked about the call and response aspect as one of the core themes of jazz, and riffing and making decisions on the fly. Kwame, was there a moment in making this that you felt that as far as, \u201cI gotta make a decision on the fly to better how the special is going to turn out\u201d?<\/p>\n KA:<\/strong> Wow. That\u2019s a great question. I think the entire process has been a riff. You\u2019re working with people you\u2019ve never worked with before. At any given time, someone\u2019s gonna ask a question or have a differing opinion. I\u2019m a very vocal person. There were numerous points in the process where that happened. In the collaboration process, especially like in jazz\u2026 there were times where I had to let Julius know, \u201cThis is my solo.\u201d And Julius stepped back. And there were times where Julius was like, \u201cKwame, this ain\u2019t your solo. This is somebody\u2019s else\u2019s solo.\u201d And when you have a relationship where everyone respects everyone, and the ultimate goal is to create a musical masterpiece, it\u2019s all love and it all comes together.<\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> There are 20 additional shorts. Julius, what are we gonna see from them?<\/p>\n JH:<\/strong> They live under what we call \u201cAcoustic Rooster Jazzy Jams\u201d. We have this broadcast special, but we also wanted to make sure we were getting little \u201cAcoustic Rooster\u201d bites out into the world in places like the PBS Kids YouTube channel. The kids that might not be directly in the PBS Kids world might get exposure to this character and some of the music. The shorts feature an original jazz song\u2026 a couple of them are jazzy takes on songs kids might know, like \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d or \u201cOld MacDonald Had a Farm\u201d. We\u2019re getting a taste of those themes of how to work together and how to express yourself. That is so key for children to learn.<\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> Kwame, how do you feel about music classes embracing this and probably watching this special and these shorts over and over again?<\/p>\n KA<\/strong>: I started off as a teacher, and I lasted six months, Jackson. That was the hardest work I\u2019ve ever done. I envy teachers. It\u2019s sacred work. One of our goals is to supplement what teachers are doing in the classroom \u2014 an option to show how music can teach kids about music \u2014 instrumentation, melody, harmony, song, lyric \u2014 but most importantly to become better human beings.<\/p>\n JM:<\/strong> And Julius, kids may be inspired to play music with pets and other animals. Maybe at farms and petting zoos. You could see a lot of videos of that.<\/p>\n JH:<\/strong> Absolutely. It\u2019s funny you mentioned that, it brought to mind an event that occurred during one of our internal screenings. Afterwards there was the little girl about four years old, she ran to her toy box and she got a little toy horsey and a little toy chicken and maybe a little Gumby\u2026 and she made herself a jazz band. She was playing with those characters in that moment. She explained that she loved the characters so much that she wanted to make her own band too. That speaks to the influence this is going to have in children having an interest in jazz music and bands. That\u2019s something super special.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.animationscoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/AcousticRooster1-460.jpg\")
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