Hooray, It's Paul's 70th Birthday Party Page

28/05/2020

Our dear friend Katherine Vaz just sent me one of my all-time favorite pics of Paul, so of course it belongs here 🙂. The Maestro, on water glasses, listening with that perfect pitch of his, and very happy on the VERY happy occasion of Katherine and Chris Cerf's wedding. ❤️

13/05/2020

The birthday party continues, 70 years and one month later 🙂... this might be my favorite of all the underscoring Paul has ever done, his jazz composition and horn arrangements and piano playing for the Between the Lions episode “Charlie Parker Played Be Bop” ❤️! He remembers every note!, but Joe Franco, do you remember who played sax on this session? Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/cgKi95r_FFk

Jazzy reading of adaptation of book, "Charlie Parker Played Be Bop" by Chris Raschka.

16/04/2020

Dearest kind, funny, creative, loving, gracious party guests from all parts of our lives...
We are waving at the door, blowing kisses at ya!
Thanks so much for coming to this celebration of our wonderful Paul’s 70th.
Be safe, wherever you’re hunkered, and know we love you very much!
You made this page something that’s the best gift to him ever!
We’re getting in our pajamas now...
###Love,
Sarah and Paul

16/04/2020

Step three was us singing BEAUTIFULLY and Paul blowing out candles and it’s a shame you can’t see it because in ALL THE EXCITEMENT I screwed up the video 😂.
So here’s Step Four, the birthday guy being amusing,
It was delicious! (Plus vegan for Julia)

15/04/2020

Step two...

15/04/2020

Step one...

15/04/2020

Your party hosts. Today.
At our age, things get serious.
Then again, maybe not.

15/04/2020

And here’s a lovely thing, just released by our beloved Chicago Children’s Theater yesterday: a puppet version of the Leo Lionni children’s classic “Frederick”. The closing song is Paul’s, from our musical, with sweet words by Lionni. There’s no message more perfect in these harsh times, huddled in our homes together/separately, than Frederick’s message of what art, memory, poetry brings to help sustain us all ❤️! Thanks so much for making this project happen, Jacqueline Russell! And our work continues in these wonderful outward ripples... share with your kids and enjoy, all!
(PS: After the credits there’s also an awesome short version of our “Wow” 🙂... thankyou Mr. Nick Davio for your lovely vocals/arrangements throughout!)
https://youtu.be/qd2zaLyaCJM

This performance of Frederick is a gift from our supporters' families to yours! We invite you to support our work at https://chicagochildrenstheatre.org/dona...

15/04/2020

Life, now 🙂.
Thanks for making our days happy this past year, friends and family!

14/04/2020

Thanks Tony Stonier for sending some sweet vids of Paul at a Glass Onion gig at Columbia in 2011! Beatles 4 ever 🙂...

14/04/2020

...and some nice 12-string on “Norwegian Wood” ❤️...

14/04/2020

...and some nice 12-string on Norwegian Wood

14/04/2020

Thanks Tony Stonier for sending some sweet Beatle moments from a Glass Onion gig at Columbia in 2011! Here's a little shred from Paul on "I Saw Her Standing There" :)

14/04/2020

Okay, can we talk about the fact that the Birthday Boy entered the Van Cliburn amateur piano concerto competition in 2000 and he WON it? Playing this beautiful Saint Saens piece. I have no video or photo to remember it by, unforgivably. But this is the piece. Thrill of a lifetime...
https://youtu.be/tVCvJZtzkqQ

Support us on Patreon and get more content: https://www.patreon.com/classicalvault --- Camille Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor, Op 22 1 Andante so...

14/04/2020

Thanks Myra Lotto for sharing your wedding pics! It brought back a swell time 😍

13/04/2020

Okay I’ll stop now 😂.
Next up, some more music, and life now at... (holy crap) 70!

13/04/2020

More randomness 🙂. Our kids’ childhoods are underrepresented out of privacy, but here’s just... stuff! Your fam and friends love you Paul!

13/04/2020

Random friends! Random family! Random celebrities! Please comment, explain, tag away, y’all! (I dropped Paul’s phone in a sink a few months ago so we’re gathering crumbs from everywhere we can 😂)

13/04/2020

“Between the Lions” 🎶 thread!
Here’s our theme song... kinda gave me goosebumps the first time I heard the finished track. Still does!
(More BTL songs in comments...)
https://youtu.be/ubH4LDcKRyE

The opening theme song from PBS's multiple-Emmy-Award-winning learn-to-read series, "Between the Lions." Cindy Mizelle sings lead on the BTL Theme, which was...

13/04/2020

Meanwhile... the other best day of our lives happened. Julia!
😍😍

13/04/2020

And finally, sit back and enjoy... The Sesame Years LIVE ACTION THREAD!
Paul’s vocal, some great piano playing 😍... the whole Sesame band at their classic best. And you can brush up on some prepositions!
(More songs in comments...)
https://youtu.be/VU5fgN3Cl3c

Not the one by Grover

13/04/2020

And now (drum roll), The Sesame Years, ANIMATION THREAD!
Paul and I got to do a LOT of singing for these, especially him on lead. Here he is doing his best David Byrne in the heyday of the synthy 80’s sound he brought to the show... animation by the fab Sally Cruikshank, produced by the late Arlene Sherman who we adored... ❤️
(More songs in comments)
https://youtu.be/hnoJwfnzmqA

3 dancing books explain the concept of stories, with Seymour travelling back in time. Sung by Paul Jacobs, who also plays most of the instruments.

13/04/2020

Time for... The Sesame Years, PUPPET THREAD 😍
So much fun recording at Nola Studios in the ‘80’s with the late, wonderful Jim Czak... Danny Epstein, the most gracious, hilarious music supervisor of dreams, letting this new rock guy with the synthesizers into that sacred space... Danny and Paul and the amazing musicians in the house band soon loved each other like family.
So. Much. Fun.
(More of our songs in comments, here’s a fave...)
https://youtu.be/bKyLzUT4svw

If you're watching videos with your preschooler and would like to do so in a safe, child-friendly environment, please join us at http://www.sesamestreet.org ...

12/04/2020

Kids’ TV posts can wait... a pause for this best thing of all... Ruby, 1991 ❤️
(Take Your Baby to Work photos in comments :))

10/04/2020

I don’t wanna forget to mention the era! First kids’ music we ever wrote, 1981, an adaptation of “Harriet the Spy” with brill writer/director/best pal Dan Hurlin. Here we are talking about it at an Andy's reunion a few years back. We had had a little wine. We were very effusive 😍. Sniffle.
More Andy’s pics in comments... Andy’s alum I’m tagging yooou, got anything to add? https://vimeo.com/165533221?ref=em-share

Songwriters Sarah Durkee and Paul Jacobs tell their story of Andy's and the beginnings they shared together with Dan Hurlin. Watch and be inspired by how Andy's…

10/04/2020

We had already been an on-and-off Couple for ten long years, but getting married seemed like something very nice and new to try 😍. And now we're getting old, but it has never stopped being both those things. Mostly nice, always new. Love you Paul!

10/04/2020

Good morning! Grateful for alla you, distanced or near.
This is a song we wrote for a Marlo Thomas book/record/tv project called "Free to Be a Family", the followup to "Free to Be You and Me". Amy Grant and John Hiatt recorded it and I still love it. It was right before we were married... had just started writing for Sesame Street... the transition into writing for kids was in full swing, and in retrospect, it was such a great feeling for us to be thinking about starting a family at the same time 😍. Thanks to our dear pal Christopher Cerf for making work always feel like such a blast, then and now!
A couple more pics in comments...
https://youtu.be/DvG0xKtELBU

09/04/2020

Possibly my two favorite Way 80’s pics of The Birthday Boy 😍...
Broadway and Grand, NYC.
(Other in comments.)

09/04/2020

As you can see by the 80’s Mad Max vibe... it’s time for a Meat Loaf thread!
(L to R: the late Wells Kelly ❤️, Meat, Paul, Bob Kulick.)
Music and pics in comments 😍

08/04/2020

(Okay, please don’t unfollow this page if I overpost 😂, I promise it’ll just be lots of stuff posted in this week leading up to The Day 🎂!)
National Lampoon “Lemmings” thread here, 1973... “Lemmings Lament” lyrics Sean Kelly, music Paul... ❤️
Anybody got memories you wanna share about this excellence, share away!
(A few more pics from Lampoon days in comments)
https://youtu.be/4t4NtPlHkuU

Audio from Lemmings CD synced with video from "lost" Lemmings VHS tape