Jazz Numbers

Written by	Denny Zeitlin
Date	1969
Publisher	Easy Reader Music

A series of animated counting films were used on Sesame Street produced during the first season. From two to ten, for each film, the songs are individually registered as "Jazz #x," where x is the featured number.

The segments, featuring race cars and spies, were shown regularly from 1969 to 1991, with vocals provided by Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane. The first segment, "Jazz #2", debuted in the first test pilot, and was first broadcast in the first episode of the series. Jazz #3 appeared in the second test show.

Composer Denny Zeitlin remembers:

“John Magnuson of Imagination, Inc. hired me to compose and perform that soundtrack, which is called "1 to 10". I'm playing piano and clavinet on it, with Bobby Natanson on drums, and Mel Graves, bass. Some time after we recorded it, Grace Slick over-dubbed her parts.”

Jazz #8 was often followed by an Ernie and Bert sketch, which begins with Ernie watching (and singing along to) the end of the segment on his TV. The skit is an Abbott and Costello-type routine, where Ernie eventually tricks Bert into saying "I eight the sandbox" (as the homophone of "eight" is "ate"); Ernie supplies the pun: "You ate the sandbox? How'd it taste?" before his signature snicker,

The film for #2 was included on Old School: Volume 1, as part of episodes 1 and 536, and in Old School: Volume 2, as part of the test pilot. The film for #10 was included in the Sesame Street Unpaved special.

During the early years of Sesame Street, these cartoons were also shown dubbed in Spanish. On the Shalom Sesame videos, Hebrew dubbed versions of #4, #6 and #8 appear, respectively, on Show 3: Kibbutz, Show 5: Jerusalem, and Show 6: Chanukah. The Sesame Street Unpaved book features stills of the race cars on the first page of each chapter. #4 and #7 can both be viewed at Sesamestreet.org. The spies from these segments appear on the cover of The Sesame Street Book of Numbers.

Segments

Episode numbers denote first appearance according to the CTW Archives.

• 2 (First: Episode 0001)
• cyclist, 2 elevator doors, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, 2 shaking hands, 2 fish, 2 people shoot at each other (paper rolls that say "2" come out of their guns)
• 3 (First: Episode 0002)
• racecar driver, 3-headed creature (with 3 teeth), 3 balls, 3 holes, 3 mice, 3 lights on a traffic light, 3-pronged pitchfork held by the Devil
• 4 (First: Episode 0006)
• hockey player, 4 airplanes, 4 diamonds on a playing card, 4 fish, 4-legged table, 4-legged chair, 4 elephants
• 5 (First: Episode 0007)
• football player, 5 fingers, 5 animals, 5 butterflies, 5 cents on a gumball machine, 5 gumballs, 5 guys riding on an alligator
• 6 (First: Episode 0011)
• train, 6 dots on a die, 6-legged insect, 6 pairs of legs on a dragon that is revealed to be 6 men in a dragon costume
• 7 (First: Episode 0012)
• runner, magician with 7 rabbits, 7 of clubs on a playing card, 7 flying creatures
• 8 (First: Episode 0016)
• 8 ball, octopus, 8 marching dogs, 8-petaled flower, which is eaten by an 8-legged creature, which is eaten by an 8-legged spider, which is swallowed by a snake
• 9 (First: Episode 0016)
• a guy jumping into a bucket, 9-paned window, 9 hats worn by 9 kids, 9 apples, 9 hearts, dancing dog
• 10 (First: Episode 0021)
• guy holding a flag with "10" on it, 10 cars in a race, 10 dogs, 10 feathers on a peacock, 10 spies on the racetrack, #10 driver wins the race