Mil's Trills On Childrens' Challenges Channeling Emotions

"How are you feeling?" seems like the simplest question that a person can ask, especially to a child.

Coming on the heels of a nearly two-year global pandemic, social distancing, remote learning, and the recent 20th anniversary of 9/11, the answer is not quite as rudimentary as one might expect – especially from children, who may not have the verbal toolset to adequately express their emotions. The year 2020 delivered a master class in collective emoting, from Black Lives Matter to LGBTQ rights to Defund the Police (as the monarch in The King and I says, "etcetera, etcetera").

Brooklyn-based children's recording artist Amelia “Mil” Robinson addresses parental concerns about kids bottling up their feelings with her latest collection, LET IT OUT! Amelia and a host of artists, including Uncle Jumbo, Divinity Roxx, Kymberly Stewart, and Pierce Freelon, contribute to songs that encompass the full spectrum, from anger ("Punch a Pillow" with Jumbo) to seeing things from other people's perspectives ("I Wanna Know" also with Jumbo) to frustration ("Let My Have My Feelings" with Freelon) and much more.

Under the direction of kids' über producer Dean Jones, Robinson and company present a unified, upbeat front to the most divisive topics. The Trumpian "good people on both sides" gets parsed as "Agree To Disagree," a tune about coming to terms with never seeing eye-to-eye on certain topics. Offering comfort when that's the only option (for kids demanding answers to the unknown, such as "when will this pandemic end") gets a gentle lullaby in "How Could I Possibly Know." When the ponderous becomes too much, Robinson and Jumbo explain how it's still okay to dance on the first single, "Disco Rain."

Robinson used her previous three CDs to develop a teaching curriculum called Messy Music, which builds social emotional skills through judgment- and criticism-free creativity. The songs on LET IT OUT! will become a primary source of teachable tools later this fall. Everyone has emotions and they need to be expressed. LET IT OUT! offers a font of straightforward, genial suggestions for young listeners. Parents can also unearth a few truths about their own feelings. Good mental hygiene shouldn't need to be coerced – let it out, organically.

LET IT OUT! is available from Mil's Trills' website, Amazon, Spotify, and Apple Music.

Here is the video for the song, "Disco Rain," featuring Uncle Jumbo:

Pierce Freelon Shatters Time And Space

Pierce Freelon hears voices. They're not imaginary; far from it. They're the voices of artists and activists who inspired him. Pierce has made them a central feature of his second children's music release, BLACK TO THE FUTURE. On last year's D.a.D., Pierce made himself and his family the focus of his songwriting. Subsequently, the 15 songs on BLACK TO THE FUTURE use the concept of Afrofuturist (think Black Panther), giving Pierce and four generations of his kin the license to look backwards and far-forward. 

Technology cuts both ways. For every genre-busting app developer, there's a reactionary Luddite claiming "Bill Gates is implanting us with microchips." Pierce mined old videotapes, smartphone messages, and recorded conversations to expand upon ideas that turned into BLACK TO THE FUTURE. His mother, jazz singer Nnenna Freelon, leads off with “No One Exactly Like You,” finishing with a scat-singing flourish. The song makes its debut – 30 years after it was first recorded onto VHS (thankfully, before the tape degraded to the point it was unusable). The tune pays tribute to disparate tracks such as Nina Simone's "Exactly Like You" and John Denver's "No One Like You." 

Son Justice and daughter Stella are featured prominently, with the former tackling toxic masculinity on "Vulnerable" and the latter getting much YouTube love for her vocals on "Zombi" (released during the height of the pandemic, pointing out how COVID forced us to sequester for fear of infecting loved ones) and the new "Braid My Hair," where Pierce tackles ground covered by Matthew Cherry's Academy Award-winning short "Hair Love." Pierce also pays homage to the nearly 50 years of major media exposure to a Black cultural icon with “Levar Burton”:

You are your ancestors like the stream, like Levar

Impossible is not a thing, asked Levar

He taught us how to read hymns, homonyms

He taught us how to fight slavery, Romulans

A former politician with a two-decade career in music performance and education, Pierce also founded Blackspace, a digital presence where he mentored dozens of youth, teaching digital storytelling through music and film. He ends BLACK TO THE FUTURE with the hip-hop heartwarmer "You Are Exactly Like No One," produced by Grammy nominee Solomon Fox. Pierce flips the conceit of the first track, sung by his mother. In doing so, Pierce expertly employs the premise of the Afrofuturist movement and contradicts the cliché "you can't go home again." In Pierce's world, the best home is the one you build – and you're always there, no matter where you are.

BLACK TO THE FUTURE is available from Pierce Freelon's website, Spotify, and Apple Music.

Here is a video for the song "Cootie Shot":

Halloween Tricks from Lucy Kalantari and Pierce Freelon

All Hallow's Eve is the perfect time to add spooky to these scary times. Grammy winners Lucy Kalantari and the Jazz Cats have added their jazzy take on October's vaunted holiday with the jazz-infused "Haunting Days of Halloween." 

Are authentic, supernatural creatures walking among us, hiding, pretending to be human, not just politicians? Lucy speculates what if, on the days leading to Halloween, these beings got to be just as they are? As the song posits:

All the creatures you know
Have been walking with you hiding under your nose
But now now now now 
It’s time time time 
To be free!

Halloween is that time of year when monsters walk among men (and costumed children). Lucy sings from the vantage point of the ghouls, jazzed at being able to dance, unconstrained by their physical (or corporeal) appearance. Her orchestrated blend of classical (Libby Weitnauer plays violin) and jazz play over a swinging, nay hypnotizing, beat. Grab "Haunted Days of Halloween" from Lucy's website, Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

Here is the video link for "Haunted Days of Halloween":

Multi-hypenate Pierce Freelon has tasked himself to deconstruct the experience of being a Black millennial father living in the South with the D.a.D. project. The accompanying CD incorporated hip hop with clips of his two children to create an engaging, relatable aural trek, D.a.D, which touched on universal concerns that cut across the racial, societal, and generational spectrum. Pierce chronicles the commonality of raising children, delivering messages of encouragement, positivity, and creativity.

For the holiday season, Pierce and his 10-year-old daughter Stella are presenting "Zombi," a pandemic Halloween anthem. Stuck at home (so she doesn't catch COVID cooties), Stella feels like a zombie, in an all-ages song about social distancing during spooky times. Hear Stella and Pierce Freelon's "Zombi" at Soundcloud, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube (below):

Quick Hits: Raffi Celebrates Frontline Workers, Pierce Freelon Ponders Fatherhood

You would think I have very little in common with Pierce Freelon. But that would just be a vacuous first impression. Yes, Pierce is a Black millennial living in the South. He's also a hiphop musician and multi-hyphenate. But he's also a father, and the songs on his new collection, D.a.D, touch on some universal concerns that cut across the racial, societal, and generational spectrum.

Fatherhood bonds men – there are times we all feel like we're not doing enough, and other times when the simplest action brings unexpected returns. Freelon (with his daughter guesting on "Daddy Daughter Day") chronicles his experiences raising a child, with messages of encouragement, positivity, and more. "Bubble" is about personal space, not coronavirus. But "help is on the way to make you safe" is definitely something we all need, moving forward into 2021 and beyond.

D.a.D is available from Pierce's website, Amazon, Spotify, and Apple Music.

Here is the video for the song, "My Body," featuring Rissi Palmer:

Raffi is the gift that keeps on giving, not only for children's music but also for children. His new single, "For All You Do," gives thanks to first responders and other frontline healthcare workers who keep the world moving during a pandemic. Written by Raffi, the song features children’s artist Lindsay Munroe and celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Proceeds from downloads and streams will got to Direct Relief, an organization dedicated to providing equipment and medication to health care workers around the world. A humanitarian aid organization, Direct Relief is active in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies – without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay. Learn more about Direct Relief. 

You can purchase "For All You Do" through Raffi's website, Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music. Here is the video for the song: