Video: "Flying Starfish" - Elena Moon Park (World Premiere!)

Unhurried Journey album cover

Unhurried Journey album cover

Even though I’m not posting quite so much these days, I will always make time to post music from Elena Moon Park, the New York singer/violinist/multi-instrumentalist who first came to kindie prominence as a member of Dan Zanes’ band. (And not just because her non-musical background suggests she’s a policy nerd like me.) She’s always drawn from a deep well of influences, yes from East Asia as noted on her first album Rabbit Days and Dumplings, but beyond that.

Her new album Unhurried Journey takes another dip into that deep well, effortlessly melding sounds from different cultures. This song from the album — “Flying Starfish” — is deceptively simple but the instrumentation, featuring the musical saw and jarana with some electronic instrumentation as well, gives it a dreamlike feel. As for the song itself, Park notes that “I sang this song to my niece Zora when she was born, making it up as I went along. While holding her for the first time, I thought of all the exciting adventures coming her way, the transformations and changes that come with them, and how her family would always be waiting for her when she returns.”

This world-premiere video features drawings by the musician and artist Dana Lyn that match the song in its simple, otherworldly texture. All around, a lovely song for your family to get lost in for a few minutes.

Elena Moon Park - “Flying Starfish” [YouTube]

Video: "Sol Nal" - Elena Moon Park and Friends (World Premiere!)

Rabbit Days and Dumplings cover

We haven't heard a lot from Elena Moon Park in the years since she released Rabbit Days and Dumplings, her collection of family folk songs from Asia.  It's not that she's been silent, of course, we just haven't had any new music.

And, no, I'm not about to tell you of new music... but I am here to premiere a brand new video from the album.  It's for "Sol Nal," a Korean song celebrating the New Year.  A simple video to be sure, but it features Park and Dan Zanes and Sonia de los Santos playing (and Colin Brooks messing around with a balloon animal), along with some Korean language translations.  In its good vibes and obvious camaraderie, the video fits nicely with the song, which I've always liked the song.

(By the way, if you like that camaraderie, might I suggest the upcoming Nov. 5 show with Park and de los Santos at Symphony Space?)

Elena Moon Park and Friends - "Sol Nal" [YouTube]

Kindie's Ten Best One-Hit Wonders

Kids music has its fair share of workhorses -- artists like Recess Monkey and Joanie Leeds and Dean Jones who consistently release albums.  And of course there are artists like Raffi and Bill Harley and Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer whose careers have spanned decades and who are still releasing music relevant to an entirely new generation of families.

And then there are the one-hit wonders -- the musicians and bands who released albums for families… and were never heard from ever again.

Well, not in any existential sense, just in the kindie world.  The reasons for recording a single album for kids and families, then deciding to abandon that particular creative vein are, no doubt, as complicated -- or simple -- as they are for any choices made by people.  Perhaps they hated doing it, it didn't fill them creatively, it didn't make enough money, they didn't have enough time -- these are the complications of life, generally.  (As is the work of keeping up a website -- in a few cases, the sites have lapsed, a clear sign that the artists aren't returning to the kindie fold.)

But it doesn't mean that we can't be disappointed that they never came back.  So here's a list of my ten favorite single-shot kindie albums.  I would love to have to take these off the list for technical reasons, i.e., they come back with a second album.

A couple definitional points:

1.  I chose not to include albums from "adult" artists who released one album for families -- think of folks like Harry Nilsson or Carole King or Barenaked Ladies (though I keep hearing rumors that they're working on kindie album #2) as their family recordings were neither their first nor last recordings.  This is a loose restriction -- it's painful not being able to put the Barenaked Ladies or Medeski Martin & Wood's albums on this list -- but if I didn't impose it this list would be long and useless.  (Perhaps what I really need is another list that reflects those artists.)

2.  I gave at least a couple year window -- meaning, if someone's released just one album, but that was within the past couple years, then they were ineligible.  Unless you're Recess Monkey, churning out an album every two years is a normal timeframe.

Here, then, in alphabetical order, is my list:

Review: Rabbit Days and Dumplings - Elena Moon Park & Friends

It would be hard for me to review this album without establishing my affinities up front:

1.  I Kickstarted this album.

2.  Our son (AKA Little Boy Blue) was born in Asia (and adopted into our family as an infant).

3.  Dan Zanes has provided a healthy part of our family soundtrack over the past 10+ years.

4.  I love kimchi.

OK, now that we have that out of the way, is it any surprise that I am very charmed by Rabbit Days and Dumplings, the first album from Elena Moon Park?  (No, it shouldn't be.)  Park, the fiddler and instrumentalist from Dan Zanes' band, has taken music from her own Korean (by way of Tennessee) heritage, mixed it with other Asian family-friendly songs, and given the songs a Zanesian flair.  The result is exactly what you'd expect -- songs from a very different culture made accessible to an English-speaking, Western audience and just as importantly, made fun as well.

There are lots of singalong chorsus on the album, starting with the album opener, "Sol Nal."  Park doesn't attempt to provide lyrics for each song in her liner notes; rather, for many songs, she picks out a single phrase as the hook.  So, for "Sol Nal," it's "Sol Nal / Sol Nal / Sol Nal Un Cho Ah Yo," which she translates as 
"New Year / New Year / I like New Year's."  Or, for the train-inspired bluegrass-y "Diu Diu Deng," singing along with "Diu! Diu!," the sound of raindrops is enough.  Language is fluid in the songs, with Park and the other vocalists flowing in and out of the native tongue of each song and English.

Just as with the lyrics, where Park clearly tried to honor the original song and language but didn't feel like she had to sing every word in that original language, the arrangements have been blended into new, often Western forms.  For example, for the Japanese fishing song "Soran Bushi," Park turns it into a rousing sea shanty, "envisioning groups of men on boats singing it," as she puts it in the liner notes.  ("A Dokkoisho!," or "heave, ho!," could be your family's next motivating call.)  The Chinese song "Diu Shou Juan" is performed in New Orleans brass band style.  And as with every Dan Zanes album, Park has recruited a kajillion different musicians (the Kronos Quartet and Wu Man among them) to play along, often letting them take the lead.

With the (partial) language barrier, age is less of an issue with this album than others, but the subjects are often most appropriate for kids ages 3 through 7.  As you would expect from the folks at Festival Five, the album packaging is first-rate, but regardless of whether you get the physical copy or order mp3s, you can also download full lyrics, translations, and chords at the album's Songs page.  Listen to a sampler of songs here.

I'm clearly biased, but I think Rabbit Days and Dumplings is a great album.  If you're put off by the description of it as folk and children's music from East Asia, I encourage you to give it a chance, as you'll discover a set of songs from that, in these renditions, are very accessible to Western ears, and even voices.  Elena Moon Park have put together a remarkable album here, one that deserves a larger audience than it might otherwise be consigned to.  Highly recommended.

My Favorite (Best?) Kids Music of 2012

While the posting date on this says 2012, I have to tell you the truth.  I am totally  back-dating this thing.  I am writing this at the end of October 2013 in preparation of writing my Top 10 lists for 2013. 

You see, my secret shame is that I never published my list(s) of my favorite kids music of 2012.

Oh, the shame, it burns... 

Now, it's not like I didn't seriously think about this subject last year.  Besides co-coordinating the 2012 Fids and Kamily Awards, I also voted in them, and the top 10 albums below reflect my vote in the awards.  But I do receive far more great kids music than I can fit into my ten-slot F&K ballot, so this is my opportunity to give some shout-outs to some artists.  Looking at this list, there are easily 6 or 7 of those albums on the list from #s 11 through 25 that could easily be swapped into the Top 10 list.

So in order not to make this already more embarrassing or major-movie-romantic-comedy-like, without further ado (or, frankly, comment), here are my lists of the best (or at least favorite) in kids music, circa 2012.  (If you define, as I do, 2012 as being Nov. 1, 2011 through Oct. 31, 2012.)

Top Kids Music Albums

1.  The Okee Dokee Brothers - Can You Canoe?

2.  Elizabeth Mitchell - Blue Clouds

3.  The Board of Education - Binary

4.  Dog on Fleas - Invisible Friends

5.  Johnny Bregar - My Neighborhood

6.  Lunch Money - Spicy Kid

7.  Recess Monkey - In Tents

8.  Various Artists - Science Fair

9.  Secret Agent 23 Skidoo - Make Believers

10.  Various Artists (Matt Wilson) - WeBop: A Family Jazz Party

Albums 11-25 (unranked, shown in alphabetical order) 

Caspar Babypants - Hot Dog!

Coal Train Railroad - Swings! 

Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band - A Potluck

Duke Otherwise - Creepy Crawly Love 

Elska - Middle of Nowhere 

Jennifer Gasoi - Throw a Penny in the Wishing Well

Jumping Through Hoops - Rockin' to the Fiddle

Randy Kaplan - Mr. Diddie Wah Diddie 

Kori Pop - Songs for Little Bean 

Elizabeth Mitchell - Little Seed 

Elena Moon Park - Rabbit Days & Dumplings 

The Pop Ups - Radio Jungle

Renee & Jeremy - A Little Love 

They Might Be Giants - No! (Deluxe Reissue) 

Laura Veirs - Tumble Bee

 

A special shout-out here to Adventures of Chicken Weebus , which isn't really kids music so I didn't really consider it for this list, but based on pure entertainment value definitely ranks in our Top 25.

 

Top Kids Music Debut Albums (listed alphabetically)

Duke Otherwise - Creepy Crawly Love 

Elska - Middle of Nowhere

Kepi Ghoulie - Kepi for Kids 

Jumping Through Hoops - Rockin' to the Fiddle 

Kori Pop - Songs for Little Bean

Alison Faith Levy - World of Wonder (I know, not quite fair given her history with the Sippy Cups, but still...)

Elena Moon Park - Rabbit Days & Dumplings

Play Date - Imagination 

Laura Veirs - Tumble Bee

Various Artists (Matt Wilson) - WeBop: A Family Jazz Party