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| Henson designers making instruments into Muppets consider what kind of eyes (and what kind of attitude) they want each piece to have. Photo: Vincent Tullo for The New York Times |
How many ways can you sing about the letter B? On “Sesame Street,” that question has many furry answers.
Since
its inception in 1969, the public television show has redefined what it
means to teach children through TV, with music as its resounding voice.
Before “Sesame Street,” it wasn’t even clear that you could do that;
once the series began, as a radical experiment that joined educational
research and social idealism with the lunacy of puppets and the buoyancy
of advertising jingles, it proved that kids are very receptive to a
grammar lesson wrapped in a song.
Big-name stars lined up to make guest appearances that have become the stuff of legend (Stevie Wonder and Grover; Loretta Lynn and the Count; Smokey Robinson and a marauding letter U). And long before inclusion was a curriculum goal, “Sesame Street” made a point to showcase Afro-Caribbean rhythms, operatic powerhouses, Latin beats, Broadway showstoppers and bebop alongside its notably diverse cast.
“Sesame
Street is one of the earliest examples of a musical I experienced,”
said Lin-Manuel Miranda, who grew up adoring “I Love Trash” and called
its singer, Oscar the Grouch, “a character so singular that he changes
the way you see the world at large.”
“I learned from ‘Sesame Street’ that music is not only incredibly fun,
but also an extremely effective narrative and teaching tool,” he added
in an email. “On top of that, their songs are the closest thing we have
to a shared childhood songbook.”...
And as the “Sesame” universe expanded, it pulled more and more major musical talent into its orbit. The jazz musician Toots Thielemans,
who performed with Benny Goodman, Ella Fitzgerald and Charlie Parker,
played harmonica on the theme song. Grace Slick provided vocals for
animated counting sequences. The guitarist in the first “Sesame”
traveling band was Carlos Alomar, who toured with James Brown and then wrote the riff for David Bowie’s “Fame.” Alomar’s replacement, who was 19 or so and showed up at his audition with a Muppet-esque green-tinged Afro, was Nile Rodgers. It was his first real paying gig as an artist.
“Sesame Street” was “part of my musical development,” said Rodgers, the Chic frontman and Grammy-winning producer.
Source: The New York Times
