COME & GET IT! Or as Mama “Freds” Meisel starts the album… ”BREAKFAST TIME!” ( she calls us ALL TOGETHER on Pancake Attack!). KiD’n TOGETHER’s most award winning recording is now available on iTunes.
Just before Ben went off to Medical School to make his way as a pediatrician, KiD’n TOGETHER released Singin’ At The Swingset. The recording won praise from parents, kids, and happened to win what many think is the top award for children’s music in the United States, The Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award.
Well, it just became available on iTunes, Amazon, and all over digital tarnation. Please download & share it with people who have and love children.
Here is an actual review of the recording from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
SECTION E
JUDITH NEWMAR
Meisels sing for inclusion of Down child
If families around the country enjoy listening to Alex, Ben & Company’s first recording, “Kid’n Together,” or their latest, “Singin’ at theSwing Set,” the musicians hope they understand one thing: The music comes from a family, too.
Brothers Alex and Ben Meisel are the principal singers, with their sister, Melody, adding her soprano. Alex wrote many of the tunes; Ben arranged them. Their mother, Fredda; their father, Harris; and Alex’s 6-year-old son, Josh, can also be heard, along with lots of other relatives and friends. Harris Meisel designed the album’s charming cover art, lots of colorful figures at play. Jacqui Meisel, Alex’s wife, wrote about the music for the text inside the jewel case.
The family from Santa Barbara, Calif., feels a little overwhelmed by the attention the music has received. The first recording won the Best Audio and the SNAP (special needs adaptable product) awards from the respected Oppenheim Toy Portfolio. The latest release picked up more honors, including Oppenheim’s 1999 Platinum Award (the Meisels beat out Raffi).
The Meisels say that most of the credit belongs to Alex and Jacqui’s 9-year-old son, Matthew. After all, he inspired the music.
Alex Meisel, who obviously grew up loving music, began playing guitar to his son when he was still in the womb. But after the baby came, Alex found that he played less and less. He didn’t have time for it anymore. He had a lot of responsibilities – a job, a wife, a baby.
A baby with Down syndrome.
On the surface, Alex says, the Meisels were the perfect Down syndrome family. Dr. Harris Meisel, a nationally known figure in rehabilitative medicine, specializes in spinal cord injury. Alex was a successful consultant in barrier-free building design. “So when Matthew was born, I felt like, `OK, we can do this.’ We will take it in stride,’ ” he said. “I thought I had been programmed for this my whole life.” He laughed softly. “Maybe I was a little bit in denial.
Alex Meisel’s business was taking off, which meant that, “professionally and personally, I had disability in my life 24 hours a day. It weighed on me pretty heavily.”
It weighed on Matthew, too, although his father didn’t see it. “I had not yet gone through grieving for the child we had expected to have, and I think that kept me from seeing Matthew’s beauty,” Alex said. “I was pretty angry. I had not come to grips with what it meant to have Matthew as our little boy.”
One thing it meant was having a child who, at 3, was pretty much non-verbal. Alex wanted to communicate with his son.
Looking back, he laughs. Why had he assumed that communication had to mean words?
“One day, we were in a room alone together, and I wanted to reach out to him,” Alex said. “I picked up the guitar. And Matthew was enthralled.
“He smiled and giggled. I tried out different chords to see what he enjoyed. We began to have a conversation, with music.”
Alex Meisel discovered that his son liked lots of kinds of music – children’s standards such as “The Wheels on the Bus” and his father’s excursions into blues, folk and jazz. Pretty soon, Alex was writing songs for Matthew and other kids.
“Pat Your Head, Clap Your Hands” reinforced Matthew’s classroom lesson on the names of body parts; “Down Home Please and Thank You” is a good-natured reminder about manners. Other songs, on topics from pancakes to rainbows, emphasize the happy sides of life.
After the Meisel brothers gave a successful benefit concert for Matthew’s school, they decided to make a recording. They started with 1,000 copies and sold out.
“The first time we put on the CD, we went wild. We danced together, all four of us,” Alex said. “This has been so positive for our family. If it works for other people, that’s the icing on the cake.
Alex Meisel often performs does live concerts, too, mostly in his sons’ classrooms. Matthew now attends public school, where he is part of a regular program; it’s working out beautifully for everyone, his father says. “When I play for them, all the kids love it. I tell them, `Hey, it’s another perk of having Matt in your classroom.’
“Matthew helped open my eyes, and our community’s eyes, to the benefits of inclusion – to looking at others’ gifts. If you have a lot of expectations and prejudices, you’re missing out.
“I know I was. It took me a while to come around to being a lot more accepting of what is real, what is actual – and to seeing the positive in that reality.
“And the music helped me get there.”
The Meisel brothers’ recordings are available on tape and CD.
Copyright (c) 1998, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
