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Characters lead children through fictional town on educational journey with upbeat singalongs
By Mary Beth Breckenridge
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 12:04 p.m. EST, Jan 20, 2010
Climb into the cab, kids. TaxiMan Zan is about to take you on a rockin' ride.
Zan is the main character of Zobapago, an Akron musical group that's making it fun to learn about science, health and hygiene. Its members will be revving up their imaginary taxi at the Akron Civic Theatre on Sunday afternoon in a performance aimed at 2- to 8-year-olds.
The members of Zobapago (pronounced zo-BOP-a-go) portray people who live and work in the fictional city of Zobapa-Dopolis. They ferry their audiences on an imaginary trip around town, using tunes to teach the kids about such varied subjects as shapes, gravity, dinosaurs and what to expect during a visit to the doctor.
The group was created by Eric Jagar, an internist with a passion for music and a commitment to education. He sees Zobapago as a way to teach and inspire children in an enjoyable, interactive way.
The seed for Zobapago sprouted in his mind in 2006 as his son, Mathis, was approaching his 1-year-old checkup, he said. Jagar, formerly a saxophone player in the band the House Popes, wanted to prepare Mathis for the experience, so he wrote a song about going to the doctor.
A few more songs followed, which his friend and fellow musician Anthony Sterns recorded. ''And, unbeknownst to me, [he] was playing them for some other people,'' Jagar said with a laugh.
Those people were parents, and they liked what they heard. ''Some kind of light bulb went off,'' he said, and he decided to form a band for children.
The group's name came indirectly from Ella Fitzgerald. Inspired by one of her recordings, he and his son were making their own attempt at scat singing, and ''that morphed into Zobapago,'' he said.
It's just a fun sound, he said. ''The letter Z . . . is so much underutilized and underrecognized, and so much fun to work with.''
Zobapago formed about 21/2 years ago and performs primarily at schools, fairs and similar events.
Jagar plays the taxi driver, TaxiMan Zan, who is accompanied by a group of musical mechanics called the New-Matic-Crew. ''Thus we're a garage band,'' Sterns said with a sly smile.
Sterns, a bass guitarist and psychologist, portrays the crew member Zig. His fellow musician-mechanics are lead singer Kim Salmons, who performs as the character Zeta Pipes; Eric Bassett, a guitarist who performs as E-Zee; Dan Salmons, a drummer who plays Zed; and Rob Eubank, a guitar and keyboard player who performs as Zag. Eubank is from Coventry Township; the others are Akron residents.
Their tunes are upbeat and poppy, designed to get kids to sing along and move with the music. The characters lead the young audience in pretending they're visiting a school, a doctor's office and even taking a ride on the Zobapa-Chopper.
The songs are designed to appeal to parents as well as to kids. And children seem to respond to the simple, happy lyrics, Kim Salmons said. Her own son, Cooper, 21/2, insists she sing him Zobapago's song about brushing teeth whenever it's time for that hygiene routine.
''The goal is to inspire fun and learning,'' to encourage young audiences to be healthy and active and to explore the world around them, Jagar said. And there's a more subtle message too: It makes the professions that are profiled seem cool.
So perhaps there's a whole new generation of Zobapa-Dopsters in the making.
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com. You can also become a fan on Facebook.
Details
• Performance: Zobapago
• When: 2 p.m. Sunday.
• Where: Akron Civic Theatre, 182 S. Main St.
• Tickets: $5, available from the Civic box office and Ticketmaster.
• Information: Civic, 330-253-2488 or http://www.akroncivic.com. Ticketmaster, 800-745-3000 or http://www.ticketmaster.com. Zobapago, http://www.zobapago.com.
Climb into the cab, kids. TaxiMan Zan is about to take you on a rockin' ride.
Zan is the main character of Zobapago, an Akron musical group that's making it fun to learn about science, health and hygiene. Its members will be revving up their imaginary taxi at the Akron Civic Theatre on Sunday afternoon in a performance aimed at 2- to 8-year-olds.
The members of Zobapago (pronounced zo-BOP-a-go) portray people who live and work in the fictional city of Zobapa-Dopolis. They ferry their audiences on an imaginary trip around town, using tunes to teach the kids about such varied subjects as shapes, gravity, dinosaurs and what to expect during a visit to the doctor.
The group was created by Eric Jagar, an internist with a passion for music and a commitment to education. He sees Zobapago as a way to teach and inspire children in an enjoyable, interactive way.
The seed for Zobapago sprouted in his mind in 2006 as his son, Mathis, was approaching his 1-year-old checkup, he said. Jagar, formerly a saxophone player in the band the House Popes, wanted to prepare Mathis for the experience, so he wrote a song about going to the doctor.
A few more songs followed, which his friend and fellow musician Anthony Sterns recorded. ''And, unbeknownst to me, [he] was playing them for some other people,'' Jagar said with a laugh.
Those people were parents, and they liked what they heard. ''Some kind of light bulb went off,'' he said, and he decided to form a band for children.
The group's name came indirectly from Ella Fitzgerald. Inspired by one of her recordings, he and his son were making their own attempt at scat singing, and ''that morphed into Zobapago,'' he said.
It's just a fun sound, he said. ''The letter Z . . . is so much underutilized and underrecognized, and so much fun to work with.''
Zobapago formed about 21/2 years ago and performs primarily at schools, fairs and similar events.
Jagar plays the taxi driver, TaxiMan Zan, who is accompanied by a group of musical mechanics called the New-Matic-Crew. ''Thus we're a garage band,'' Sterns said with a sly smile.
Sterns, a bass guitarist and psychologist, portrays the crew member Zig. His fellow musician-mechanics are lead singer Kim Salmons, who performs as the character Zeta Pipes; Eric Bassett, a guitarist who performs as E-Zee; Dan Salmons, a drummer who plays Zed; and Rob Eubank, a guitar and keyboard player who performs as Zag. Eubank is from Coventry Township; the others are Akron residents.
Their tunes are upbeat and poppy, designed to get kids to sing along and move with the music. The characters lead the young audience in pretending they're visiting a school, a doctor's office and even taking a ride on the Zobapa-Chopper.
The songs are designed to appeal to parents as well as to kids. And children seem to respond to the simple, happy lyrics, Kim Salmons said. Her own son, Cooper, 21/2, insists she sing him Zobapago's song about brushing teeth whenever it's time for that hygiene routine.
''The goal is to inspire fun and learning,'' to encourage young audiences to be healthy and active and to explore the world around them, Jagar said. And there's a more subtle message too: It makes the professions that are profiled seem cool.
So perhaps there's a whole new generation of Zobapa-Dopsters in the making.
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com. You can also become a fan on Facebook.
Details
• Performance: Zobapago
• When: 2 p.m. Sunday.
• Where: Akron Civic Theatre, 182 S. Main St.
• Tickets: $5, available from the Civic box office and Ticketmaster.
• Information: Civic, 330-253-2488 or http://www.akroncivic.com. Ticketmaster, 800-745-3000 or http://www.ticketmaster.com. Zobapago, http://www.zobapago.com.
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