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¡Muévete! Songs for a Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body, the new album from GRAMMY-nominated Mexican-American children’s music artist José-Luis Orozco, is out today on Smithsonian Folkways. All about the importance (and fun!) of exercise, it is a timely celebration of 50 years of Orozco’s music career, the magic of multicultural education, and 50 years of teaching and inspiring children through Spanish/English bilingual tunes and lessons. Featuring eighteen joyous songs sung in both English and Spanish, the album will get kids dancing, jumping, singing, and learning important language and exercise skills - without even realizing they’re doing it.
Listen to “The Dance of All the Colors” / “El baile de los colores,” and get moving at home HERE
And purchase the album HERE
¡Muévete! Songs for a Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body promotes fitness for kids up to age seven, and is the follow up to Orozco’s previous, GRAMMY-nominated Folkways album, ¡Come Bien! Eat Right!, all about good eating habits and nutrition. With ¡Muévete!, Orozco shows kids of all backgrounds how much fun exercise can be, with songs dedicated to stretching before playtime, balance, and of course, dancing.
Created in collaboration with Grammy-winning Chicano musician-producer Quetzal Flores and some of L.A.’s finest instrumentalists, the album builds on Orozco’s background as a seasoned educator, his deep California roots, and his dedication to education and resource equity.
Born in Mexico City to a family of 11 kids, Orozco first gained a love for music and different cultures when he was accepted into the Mexico City Boy’s Choir at age 7, and traveled the world performing for diplomats, presidents, and even Princess Grace Kelly. At 19, with $50 in his pocket, he immigrated to California, worked his way through UC Berkeley, and attained a master’s in Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco. By 1970, he was using music and his educational background in bilingual literacy skills to reach children and help them with oral language development.
Since then, Orozco has become a key figure in music education for children, and has especially dedicated himself to teaching Latinx children - who now make up more than one of four elementary school students, but don’t always receive the same access to educational resources as their peers.
Says Orozco, “In a bilingual setting, the English speakers will learn Spanish and Latin American traditions, and the more children understand each other, the more they learn about other cultures, the better world that they’ll have when they grow up… Many English-speaking parents now want their kids to learn Spanish because they’ve learned that Spanish is a practical language in the United States, and if I can bring it with music, with dance, with movement, and with fun, everybody wins.”
Right now, the lessons of ¡Muevete! are more important than ever for children and parents to try to keep up with while on lockdown. A prolific touring artist who usually travels 125,000 miles in a single year to bring music to children, Orozco is using YouTube to keep kids engaged and help them continue their education from home. “The vision is to reach all the children,” Orozco told GRAMMY.com. “And to celebrate multiculturalism, bilingualism and with this particular recording, to celebrate movement and to keep healthy, especially around these days of the Coronavirus epidemic.”
Read GRAMMY.com's extensive interview with Jose-Luis where he discusses the new album, his 50 years in music, encouraging diversity in schools, and more HERE
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