Songs From The Neighborhood:The Music Of Mister Rogers
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Free Music Notes for Songs From The Neighborhood:The Music Of Mister Rogers
Free Music Review: Grammy Nominated Set is Beautiful!
Hit: 4 Stars
Mister Rogers has had such a wonderful run on public television. He invoked many happy & safe emotions to me in my childhood. He has lovingly affected many generations of children. What a wonderful sentiment then is this set of his songs so wonderfully interpreted & contributed by some very talented artists. My favorites from this set is DONNA SUMMER's "Are You Brave", CRYSTAL GAYLE's "Did You Know", & TONI ROSE's "Just For Once". This set was recently GRAMMY nominated for Best Children's Recording this year! The songs are great to listen to by Adults & Children alike. Great album!Free Music Review: Songs from the Neighborhood
Hit: 4 Stars
A very sweet tribute to our dear friend Fred Rogers. Of course, Fred sings them all better himself and I highly recommend those CDs to all parents. But this is a great tape to listen too with friends who don't know the great music of Mr. Rogers and get them interested in his music and philosophy of kindness.Free Music Review: The Neighborhood's Been Remodeled
Hit: 3 Stars
Had to listen to this before giving it to my granddaughter. I always respected Mr. Rogers' songwriting talent as well as the formidable chops and impeccable taste of his virtuoso pianist, Johnny Costa. As a musician and parent, I remember feeling good about turning my kids over to the music of the show. Wish I could say the same for this CD. If the album has a "star," it's Yamaha FM synthesis, a mushy wallpaper-music sound that was wrung completely out of mainstream jazz at least 15 years ago and that certainly never reared its cheesy head on a Mr. Rogers' show.
A preceding reviewer, Mr. Arkens, pretty much tells it like it is (apparently not a popular option): this is "adult contemporary pop," a far cry from the musical arrangements on the show. Too bad this collection couldn't include Nnenna Freelon's high-spirited recording of "It's You I Like" (from her Columbia CD, "Heritage"), with sparkling accompaniment by pianist Kenny Barron. For my money, the strong performances on the CD are by John Pizzarelli, Maureen McGovern, and Ricky Skaggs, all of whom eschew the synthesizer slush and play it relatively straight. The other tracks strike me as pleasant enough (with the possible exception of Toni Rose's teen-beat concoction) but otherwise forgettable. "Won't You Be My Neighbor!" is done twice, but neither version makes the tempo established by the composer. At least this collection should serve as a reminder that Mr. Rogers' kids have grown up while retaining the wisdom of their mentor. Still, I may think twice before sending this one all the way to Philadelphia.
[In expressing a personal opinion about the music, I don't mean to downplay the formidable challenge of the project--not just the programming and recording of the music but the task of assembling a diverse company of headliners, most of whom are no doubt under exclusive contract to major labels, not to mention the hassles of obtaining permissions from publishers. Patience and tenacity along with dedication and creativity are evident in the final production, which bears some resemblance to another 2006 Grammy-award winner, "American Made, World Played," a tribute to the music of Les Paul by Eric Clapton, Sting, and other pop stars. This one also failed to engage me, but Les is said to have loved it. I suspect Fred Rogers would feel the same about "Songs from the Neighborhood."]
Postscript: I sent the CD to my daughter (a mom and physician in Philadelphia). She loved it.
Free Music Review: Hind Sight
Hit: 3 Stars
Had I looked closely at these CD's, I would have realized that the songs are not sung by Fred Rogers. It is not as big a draw with my daughter as I thought it would be with other voices that she does not know.Free Music Review: Not true to the songs.
Hit: 2 Stars
This album drips with all the sappy cliches, uninspired performances, and canned accompaniments that make the "Adult Contemporary Pop" genre an abolition to the word MUSIC. Fred Rogers created a truely unique childrens program- What other program is filled with enough content to capture an audience's attraction without the use of fantastic color animations, overly excited reactions, or unintelligent humor? The original music to compliment the program fit into that vein perfectly- Jazz. But not just any kind of jazz- "folk jazz," to coin a genre. It was intelligent music of and for the people. It was music that subtly sent the message that there is music in each of us. If you have any affinity for the music of Mr. Rogers, pick up the original recordings- they ARE available. This tribute album is not true to the message that Mr. Rogers preached all his life.