“Sesame Street Theme” (PDF) from the Delfeayo Marsalis album, Kalamazoo

Joe Raposo was an established, off-Broadway music director when he was hired by the Children’s Television Workshop to compose music for the 1969 premiere of Sesame Street. In addition to his background in musical theater, Raposo had also been influenced by the New Orleans piano funk and Philadelphia soul music of the era, most noticeably found in the syncopated melody of the show’s theme song, “Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?” Trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis originally recorded a version for his 2014 album The Last Southern Gentlemen and in the song’s introduction on Kalamazoo he reveals to the audience, “it’s a blues!”

But it was the virtuosic performance of harmonicist Jean-Baptiste “Toots” Theilemans that sparked the imagination of Sesame Street’s viewers during the opening and closing segments of the show. His signature sound was recruited by Raposo, who had a fondness for the novelty recordings of composer Spike Jones. On this recording, Marsalis’ use of the Harmon mute alludes to the Theilemans sound and the playfulness of Jones, however it is his wah technique that reflects the blues that may have originally inspired Raposo’s work.

Here is a YouTube video of Delfeayo Marsalis performing from The Last Southern Gentlemen tour.

Recommended reading: Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis. Published by Penguin Books.