‘Sesame Street’ Meets Backstreet

Musician/Educator Aaron Nigel Smith Creates Children’s Music for ‘Everyone’

Ever stroll around the village, just south of Sunset Boulevard, on a sunny weekday afternoon, and hear the notes of funk music wafting through the air like a bright red balloon? You follow the sound, like Yogi Bear chasing the scent of a freshly baked apple pie cooling on a window sill, and it leads you down Swarthmore to La Cruz, where a live band of young musicians is jamming outside Seven Arrows Elementary School. Well, Aaron Nigel Smith is the man responsible for that, as the director of Seven Arrows’ music department for the past three years, and on January 15, the seasoned singer, musician and producer released his second collection of children’s music, ‘Everyone Loves to Dance.’ You might call Smith’s new CD something of a ‘fam jam.’ That is, family-friendly music with a funky bent featuring Smith on vocals. Moreover, the album is primarily a Seven Arrows affair. Smith enlisted his sons, Zion, 11, and Eden, 7, as well as fellow Seven Arrows students Cole and Sage Schriener to sing and perform on ‘Everyone Loves to Dance.’ If the students at Seven Arrows are extended family, wait until you meet Smith’s friends. On ‘Everyone,’ Smith collaborated with one of the Backstreet Boys as well as with Ziggy Marley, son of reggae’s greatest icon and a Grammy-winning artist in his own right. Smith, 37, has worked with Marley before. He and the Palisades Children’s Choir (a group Smith founded last summer) collaborated on the track ‘Tuff Gong’ for Ziggy’s album of Bob Marley songs for kids. ‘Ziggy and his wife, Orly, invited me to start a private parent-and-me music class for their family and friends after meeting me at one of my music classes,’ Smith says. ‘Ziggy asked me to bring in a kids’ choir to sing on the ‘B is for Bob’ CD last year, which was the beginning of our musical collaboration.’ A few years before meeting Marley, Smith befriended Kevin Richardson, former member of the Backstreet Boys, who enjoyed 14 Top 40 hits. While the boy band continues to record, founding member Richardson quit Backstreet in 2006 to focus on his family. ‘I was introduced to Kevin a few years back when he expressed interest in collaborating on a kids’ DVD/television project,’ Smith recalls. ‘We immediately hit it off really well.’ Smith’s goal on such children’s CDs is to create new songs and/or update existing tunes with ‘cool, hip lyrics and fun hooks, simultaneously engaging the child and educating the child,’ he says. ‘I want to engage the mind, the body, the values and spirit.’ Born in Michigan, and raised in Overland, Ohio, Smith attended boarding school in Princeton, New Jersey, before attending the Michigan-based Interlochen Arts Academy, where he met his wife, Dierdre, who today performs as a modern dancer. Smith describes this arts-based high school as ‘a little Juilliard in the forest.’ It was there that he became involved with the American Boys Choir, with which he performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. Eleven years ago, Smith decided to ‘come to California to pursue some musical endeavors.’ He happily settled in Pacific Palisades a decade ago, having had enough of ‘freezing in the Midwest.’ ‘They’ve really taken to the program,’ Smith says of his Seven Arrows students. ‘They’re uninhibited.’ He also praises the school for integrating music, fine arts and the performing arts into its curriculum beyond the call of other schools. Between ‘The Masquerade’ every February (for which ‘costumes are made, manifest from scratch,’ he says), the Dia de los Muertos Festival, the weekly Kuyam music program, and ‘Winter Holidays,’ a celebration of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, Seven Arrows effectively melds arts and ethnic cultures into its school year. Smith has long married his musical background with children’s education. Launched in 2002, his enrichment program, FUNdamentals of Music and Movement, has been implemented in more than 100 schools nationwide. His Palisades Children’s Choir is currently auditioning kids (see information below right) at the Palisades Presbyterian Church for a program that will culminate with a spring concert in May. Margarita Pagliai, founder and principal of Seven Arrows, says that the school hired Smith because of ‘his history, his education, his creation of FUNdamentals, and his knowledge and understanding of global music.’ Smith is critical to the school’s overall curriculum because music is a core educational component, not merely an elective. Smith writes the school’s music curriculum, teaches choral music and instruments, and conveys basic music theory and the Orff method (a music education system ‘adapted to his own fundamentals,’ Pagliai says). He also organizes the weekly Kuyam jam, which includes the sixth-grade band and a parents band. The sixth-grade band is not a casual endeavor. ‘They need to master [their choice of music], which takes three months,’ Pagliai says, adding that no other local school teaches music three times a week with 45-minute sessions. Seven Arrows’ Andres Ospina, who helps Smith coordinate the parent band, cites Smith’s ‘inspiration, his ability to connect with kids. He brings a level of professionalism.’ ‘Music is the poetry,’ Pagliai adds, to engage children in learning about other cultures and customs and set them on the path to understanding her school’s credo: ‘We’re more alike than different.’ ‘If kids don’t understand that,’ she says, ‘they can not become global citizens.’ Outside of children’s albums, Smith has collaborated in the studio with the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, Bradley Baker and Cliff Morrison as a singer and as a producer. And his work has garnered him some notice, including the National Parenting Publications Award and the iParenting Award for his first release, the 2005 CD ‘Let’s Pretend.’ He was also invited to contribute to ‘Between the Lions’ after joining a stage version of the Emmy Award-winning PBS kids show two years ago. ‘Last year, [Boston-based PBS affiliate] WGBH decided to produce a music video to one of the songs called ‘It’s My Job,’ featuring me in it,’ Smith says. ‘The songs and video are currently being aired on [the program].’ Up next for Smith: ‘I am currently working on producing content for my original kids’ music television show. In addition, I am working on producing creative content for the My Gym Children’s Fitness Centers’ entertainment division.’ To audition for the Palisades Children’s Choir, children ages 8-12 should call 310-492 5794 or e-mail dsmith@palisadeschoir.org. Visit palisadeschoir.org for more information.