Jazz Articles about Colin Bailey

About Colin Bailey

Album Review

Vince Guaraldi: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Music from the Soundtrack

Read "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Music from the Soundtrack" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
November 25, 2022

The 2018 release of this 1966 animated television special soundtrack made the music available for the first time. Pianist/composer Vince Guaraldi led a sextet (rather than his usual trio), resulting in richer-sounding, more complex arrangements. This is arguably the best expression of classic Peanuts music. But since the session tapes could not be found, the producers were forced to use the film soundtrack as the audio source. So, the recording quality was less than optimal, and some cues included sound ...

Album Review

Vince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Read "A Charlie Brown Christmas" reviewed by Marc Davis

by Marc Davis
December 19, 2015

A Charlie Brown Christmas is the corniest jazz-Christmas album ever made. And that's OK. It's even good. I know the dig. What Vince Guaraldi played wasn't jazz, it was lounge music. It was sentimental. It was lightweight. It was sappy. Yep. All of that. So what? Christmas time is about memories. That's what the smells, the sights, the tastes and the music are about. Some are family memories, some are communal memories. A Charlie Brown Christmas ...

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Album Review

Vince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Read "A Charlie Brown Christmas" reviewed by Robert Gilbert

by Robert Gilbert
December 2, 2003

Only a handful of jazz albums find their way into the collections of music lovers who would never call themselves jazz fans. Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is one, Getz/Gilberto is another, and Coltrane's A Love Supreme also comes to mind. For Christmas time, though, the album is Vince Guaraldi's soundtrack to the 1965 special A Charlie Brown Christmas.A beloved (and rightly so) half-hour parable about the meaning of the holidays featuring the Peanuts gang, Guaraldi's music plays ...

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Album Review

Vince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Read "A Charlie Brown Christmas" reviewed by Florence Wetzel

by Florence Wetzel
December 2, 2003

Just in time for the holidays, Fantasy has released a remaster of the classic soundtrack A Charlie Brown Christmas. The cartoon follows Charlie Brown's search for the true meaning of Christmas, and Vince Guaraldi's music is an integral part of this perennial holiday favorite. Guaraldi, born in 1928 in San Francisco and died in 1976 while resting between sets at a club, was part of the flourishing '50s California scene which produced the movement known as West Coast jazz. The ...

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Album Review

Vince Guaraldi: Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus

Read "Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus" reviewed by David Rickert

by David Rickert
May 15, 2003

If Vince Guaraldi is known for anything beyond the Charlie Brown specials, it will be a catchy little tune called “Cast Your Fate in the Wind.” Originally the B-side to an abbreviated version of “Samba de Orfeu,” the instantly appealing tune became a radio hit and the album was repackaged to feature the song prominently on the sleeve (surprisingly, on this reissue the cover has been redesigned to eliminate the change).1962's Black Orpheus (inspired by Antonio Carlos Jobim's ...

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Album Review

Vince Guaraldi Trio: Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits

Read "Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits" reviewed by Douglas Payne

by Douglas Payne
October 1, 1998

This nice little holiday gift is easily confused with the popular soundtrack to the 1964 TV special,A Charlie Brown Christmas. But don't be fooled. Nine of the 14 tracks included here are culled from the 15 Peanuts holiday specials Vince Guaraldi scored before his untimely death at age 47 in 1976--and have never been released on disc before.Some will even startle Vince Guaraldi fans. The lovely, melodic waltzes you can hum along to are all here. But it's ...