Watch Jazzy Spies: 1969 Psychedelic Sesame Road Animation, That includes Grace Slick, Teaches Children to Depend

When requested for his or her favourite Sesame Road seg­ment, many chil­dren of the 70s and 80s level to Pin­ball Num­ber Depend. Psy­che­del­ic ani­ma­tion, the Level­er Sis­ters, odd time signatures—what’s to not love? However for the seri­ous Sesame Road buff, the “Jazz Num­bers” collection above deserves the sil­ver medal. It’s bought free jazz, Yel­low Sub­ma­rine-type sur­re­al­is­tic ani­ma­tion, and a vocal from Grace Slick of Jef­fer­son Air­aircraft. What number of younger par­ents rec­og­nized her dis­tinc­tive voice, I gained­der?

Often known as “Jazzy Spies,” this 1969 collection of ani­ma­tions was devot­ed to the num­bers 2 by means of 10 (there was no movie for “one” as it’s the loneli­est num­ber that you just’ll ever do), and was an essen­tial ele­ment in Sesame Road’s first sea­son. Excessive­lights embrace the dream-like ele­va­tor door sequence of “2,” the Jack­son 5 ref­er­ence in “5,” and the rac­ing followers in “10.”

Slick bought concerned by means of her first hus­band, Jer­ry Slick, who professional­duced the seg­ments for San Fran­cis­co-based ani­ma­tion stu­dio Imag­i­na­tion, Inc. Head­ed by ani­ma­tor Jeff Hale, the com­pa­ny additionally professional­duced the Pin­ball seg­ments, in addition to the well-known anamor­phic “Sort­author Man,” the Ring­mas­ter, and the Detec­tive Man. Hale, by the way in which, has a cameo as Augie “Ben” Canine­gie within the well-loved Lucas par­o­dy Laborious­ware Wars.)

The deliri­ous music was com­posed and per­shaped by Colum­bia jazz artist Den­ny Zeitlin, who would go on to attain the 1979 remake of Inva­sion of the Physique Snatch­ers. Zeitlin performs each piano and clavinet; accom­pa­ny­ing him is Bob­by Natan­son on drums and Mel Graves on bass. Accord­ing to Zeitlin, Grace Slick over­dubbed her vocals lat­er.

This wasn’t Slick’s first encounter with Jim Hen­son. In 1968, she and oth­er mem­bers of Jef­fer­son Air­aircraft have been a part of a coun­ter­cul­ture doc­u­males­tary referred to as Youth ’68, the path­er for which you’ll groove on right here.

Sesame Road, with all its pri­ma­ry col­ors, plas­tic mer­chan­dise, and Elmo infes­ta­tion, could have misplaced its edge, however these ear­ly works present its rev­o­lu­tion­ary foun­da­tions.

Be aware: An ear­li­er ver­sion of this publish appeared on our website in 2015.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Philip Glass Com­pos­es Music for a Sesame Road Ani­ma­tion (1979)

Itzhak Perl­man Seems on Sesame Road and Poignant­ly Reveals Children Find out how to Play the Vio­lin and Push By means of Life’s Lim­its (1981)

Watch the First Episode of Sesame Road and 140 Oth­er Free Episodes

A Younger Jim Hen­son Train­es You Find out how to Make Pup­pets with Socks, Ten­nis Balls & Oth­er Home­maintain Items (1969)

See Ste­vie Received­der Play “Tremendous­sti­tion” and Ban­ter with Grover on Sesame Road in 1973

Thank You, Masks Man: Lenny Bruce’s Lone Ranger Com­e­dy Rou­tine Turns into a NSFW Ani­mat­ed Movie (1968)

Ted Mills is a free­lance author on the humanities.