His wonder years
PETER Himmelman makes music for children as a sideline. Unlike former Del Fuegos frontman Dan Zanes, who’s now a family music superstar, folk-rock heavyweight Himmelman tucks his brainy, quirky kid stuff into the spaces between his albums and concerts for adults and his film and TV scores (“Bug Juice, “Men in Trees” and “Bones”).
That doesn’t mean that Himmelman, who’s performing a family concert tonight at Kidspace Museum’s Stone Hollow Amphitheater in Pasadena, considers such music a lesser effort.
“If there is some essential truth or idea that one holds,” he says, it should be understandable to a listener at any level. “All the stuff that’s good, it’s not just good for children; it’s just good. It so happens that it’s a form of expression that children can also relate to.”
For Himmelman, that means songs that are smart, silly, touching and imagination-stirring.
Fueled by a deep sensitivity to kids’ interests and concerns, his original tunes can be found in such well-received family CDs as “My Best Friend Is a Salamander” and “My Fabulous Plum,” and his first Rounder Records kids’ release, “My Green Kite.”
Himmelman’s Kidspace concert may offer such musical ruminations as “A World Where You Only Eat Candy” (“Every kid loves turnips in a land where there’s only candy”), the celebratory “Feet” and “Have You Ever Really Looked at an Egg?”
“We make the mistake of thinking we’ve demystified these things, when what’s happening is that we’ve lost a sense of wonder,” Himmelman says of his child’s-eye view of the world, where the mundane can seem magical.
He notes with satisfaction that “My Green Kite” “really stretched us as musicians,” referring to such A-list colleagues on the CD as multi-instrumentalist Willie Aron (formerly of Balancing Act), bassist Brett Simmons and drummer Brendan Buckley.
As a Jewish kid growing up in Minnesota, Himmelman absorbed an eclectic array of musical influences.
His mother played records by legendary jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal. “Not a lot of moms put that on for their kids,” he says. “And she told me that Thelonious Monk would imitate a blue note by hitting two notes at once, like a bent note. She fed me a lot of stuff.”
His father brought home tapes by Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. His sister played Motown, the Animals and the Beatles; his brother listened to Southern rock “and we always had some classical going on.”
Inspiration for Himmelman, who has four children, can be intensely personal. “My Father’s an Accountant,” on “My Green Kite,” for instance, is a tender, humorous homage to good dads everywhere.
It was inspired by Himmelman’s father, who died of lymphoma when the singer was in his 20s.
“My dad wasn’t an accountant, but it was about my dad,” he says. “He was upset that he was dying, and that he hadn’t done anything with his life. I said, ‘You’re such a good dad and good husband. It’s the most magnificent accomplishment you could ever hope to achieve.’ ”
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Peter Himmelman
Where: Kidspace Children’s Museum, Stone Hollow Amphitheater, 480 N. Arroyo Blvd., Pasadena
When: 6 to 8 p.m. today
Price: $15
Info: (626) 449-9144
www.kidspacemuseum.org
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