Jazz Harmony for Kids: The Capitol Records Children's Albums of Billy May, 1946–54

This article tells the never-before-told story of the jazz “ear training” of the Baby Boomer generation. Millions of American children of the 1940s and 50s received a thorough education in modern jazz harmony from an unlikely source: popular children's records! It was “The Golden Age of Kiddie Records,” and the best-selling composer in the industry was jazz composer Billy May.

With annotated musical examples drawn from the original manuscript scores and scripts in the BYU Capitol Records Manuscript Collection, this article shows how Billy May used the hallmark techniques of modern jazz harmony to tell captivating stories to children: Bugs Bunny will introduce us to quartal harmony (including “So What” voicings); Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck will introduce altered chords, upper-structure triads, quintal harmony, extensions beyond the 13th, and even octatonic harmony; and Robin Hood will join with other children's icons to introduce tri-tone substitutions, polytonality, modulation to distant key centers and more.

Finally, this article will show how Billy May was composing creatively with the advanced harmonic concept that has come to be known as “Coltrane Changes,” and even composed a large portion of both the melody and harmony that came to be known as “Giant Steps,” in the 1940s—more than a dozen years before Coltrane caused a “harmonic revolution” in jazz by composing these exact same notes and chords. It was childhood “ear training” like no other. These discoveries will challenge our beliefs and update our knowledge about the historical development of jazz harmony.