Everything I Know about Jazz, I Learned from Elmo

That’s right. Elmo.

Several years ago, I came to the conclusion that I really didn’t like jazz. I used to want to like it, but eventually I gave up even really wanting to. Sure, I enjoy sitting on the lawn with friends at Lincoln’s Jazz in June once or twice a summer, but beyond that the musical genre just hasn’t been for me.

Enter Elmo.

I really have no idea where he even learned the name—I can promise it wasn’t from me or Jason—but Simon has a genuine affection for “Melmo!” The little red monster was probably one of my least favorite Sesame Street characters—I don’t know why really except that I did find his baby voice and his referring to himself in the third person annoying.  I tried to stave off the Melmo love as long as I could, but Simon is nothing if not relentless, so I found some short Elmo videos online that I can tolerate. Okay, okay, full disclosure: the truth is that after watching these videos again and again and again (and again and again . . . ), they have grown on me to the point where I actually find them quite funny and charming. We pretty much stick to this playlist, but there are a few other ones that we watch now and again.

Whenever Simon gets to pick “doo Melmo” (two Elmos), I secretly hope he picks the one with Kermit the Frog because it brings back good memories of the Sesame Street News skits I watched as a kid or the one of Grover delivering a singing telegram for its genuinely funny lines (e.g., “You can’t shove singing and dancing under the door; they are artistic!”) or the one with Jamie Foxx because the fox’s vocabulary cracks me up. He most often picks the one with Natalie Portman, perhaps because it’s long (I love Portman’s playfulness in that one). Lately, I’ve been liking the one with jazz musician Diane Schuur—it’s a catchy little number, doobe doobe doowah.

So here I am saying that I like both jazz and Elmo—in small to medium doses, at least. File it under Things You Never Thought Would Be True and Then You Had Kids.