After graduating from the New England Conservatory in 2011, Allegra Levy quickly established herself as one of the more sophisticated voices in the world of jazz. She just released her fourth album, “Lose My Number,” a collection of her mature lyrics set to tunes by trumpeter John McNeil, who has performed with Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, and many others.
While her forte is music for grown-ups, the song for which Levy just won a John Lennon Songwriting Award was made for an audience of one — a 2-year-old.
“Wash My Hands” was written for Levy’s niece, Diana, while the singer was staying with her brother’s family in Connecticut, where Levy grew up. Levy and her husband both contracted COVID-19 early on, before the lockdowns began. When the virus caught up with her extended family, she figured she should go help them out.
Her parents were there, too. “We were all quarantined together — the COVID family,” she says.
She brought her ukulele to entertain Diana.
“She loves the ukulele. She responds well to music,” Levy says. To get Diana to understand the importance of personal hygiene in fighting the virus, Levy made up “Wash My Hands.”
It’s a simple reminder set to a catchy melody, with a children’s chorus echoing Levy’s voice. “I’m gonna keep six feet if I’m out in the street/But I’ll stay off my feet if I feel unwell,” she sings.
The John Lennon Songwriting Contest, which Yoko Ono, the late Beatle’s widow, established in 1997, has awarded more than $300,000 in prizes to date. On a whim, Levy submitted “Wash My Hands” to the contest’s children’s music category in the “Stuck at Home” project, a pandemic-era weekly version of the contest. The song will go on to compete against other winning entries.
Levy has won awards before, including a 2019 International Independent Film Award for best original song and first place in the Adult Contemporary category of the 2019 Great American Song Contest for her feminist pop song “Waste My Time.”
She crowdsourced the kids’ voices in “Wash My Hands” (and the video clips of children in an accompanying video) from friends and family, some as far away as Australia.
“I just wanted to be proactive,” she says. “I know kids pick up on our anxiety. Hopefully this makes it fun.”
McNeil, who first met Levy at NEC, where he teaches, says he’s continually impressed by her ability to make challenging songs accessible.
“The line between young and old, it’s like it’s not even there,” he says.
But the “young” is pronounced on “Wash My Hands.”
“I heard that damn song,” he jokes, “and I couldn’t get it out of my head.”