Jazz Articles about Vince Guaraldi
Vince Guaraldi: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Music from the Soundtrack
by Mark Sullivan
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 ...
read moreVince Guaraldi at the Piano
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Vince Guaraldi at the Piano Derrick Bang 354 pages ISBN: # 978-078645902-5 McFarland & Company, Inc, 2012 Soon after autumn leaves fall, promos hit the airwaves for the various Charlie Brown Holiday specials. Those timeless animations are lathered up with marvelously hip jazz—that of pianist Vince Guaraldi. While umbilical tied to that franchise, Guaraldi possesses an enormously robust repertoire and a broad-ranging performance career about which many jazz fans know little. That legacy is ...
read moreVince Guaraldi’s Christmas Sauce: Adding Spice to Charlie Brown Vanilla
by Arthur R George
It's not simply that pianist Vince Guaraldi slipped jazz past the unsuspecting in composing A Charlie Brown Christmas, the evergreen “Peanuts" animation and soundtrack that has become inescapably part of the holiday. First broadcast in 1965, going on to six decades ago, A Charlie Brown Christmas is a tradition unto itself. It returns to television through PBS and PBS Kids on the evening of Sunday, December 19. Some who can't wait, or want to watch and listen again and again, ...
read moreVince Guaraldi’s Classic Peanuts Soundtrack Music Reissued on LP
by Mark Sullivan
When television producer Lee Mendelson heard jazz pianist/composer Vince Guaraldi's hit single “Cast Your Fate to the Wind" on his car radio, he thought he had found the right composer for the soundtrack to the documentary on Charles Schultz's cartoon series Peanuts that he was working on. Guaraldi indeed turned out to be the perfect man for the job, eventually creating original holiday standards in the process, as well as some of the most popular jazz music ever recorded.
read moreTop Ten Jazz Christmas Songs Of All-Time
by Ken Hohman
While moldy Christmas songs and great jazz seem as compatible as egg nog and Tanqueray, there have been instances where the planets have aligned to create songs that display the best of both genres. Ten instances, to be exact, and you'll find them below. Do you agree? Then post your holiday toast to my list. Don't agree? Post the all-time Christmas jazz song of your choice in the comments section below. I will save a special lump of coal just ...
read moreThe Anatomy of Vince Guaraldi
by Marc Davis
Vince GuaraldiThe Anatomy of Vince Guaraldi Jazz Casual Productions 2016 In 1962, jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi scored a surprise hit with his catchy, upbeat record “Cast Your Fate to the Wind." Three years later, millions of Americans who thought they didn't like jazz discovered Guaraldi's music on the debut of the TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas--and they loved it. His signature song, “Linus and Lucy," is perhaps the most popular jazz tune ...
read moreVince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas
by Marc Davis
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 ...
read more
