Jazz Articles about Vince Guaraldi

Vince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas

by Jim Santella
December 2, 2006

This 1965 soundtrack has become ingrained in our minds through repeated leisurely holiday seasons with the family in the living room. They're great memories, brought to us by a stellar jazz piano trio that was always on top of the situation. Together, they gave us a no-nonsense setting. Each traditional Christmas song and each Guaraldi original leaves a smile on our faces.

Children's voices add a loving touch to “My Little Drum, “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing and ...

Vince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas

by David Rickert
November 19, 2006

If you were born in the sixties or later, there's a good chance that your first exposure to jazz was through the Peanuts Christmas special. Today the whimsical music of Vince Guaraldi seems inseparable from this holiday classic, but it almost didn't happen that way; producer Lee Mendelson originally envisioned either Dave Brubeck or Cal Tjader writing the score, even though CBS felt jazz was unsuitable for a cartoon show. Fortunately the show as we know it took place, giving ...

Vince Guaraldi: Vince Guaraldi and the San Francisco Boys' Chorus

by David Rickert
August 29, 2005

Even the biggest Vince Guaraldi fan may not know that this album existed. It was the only album released on D&D, Guaraldi's own label, and in the late sixties it was a commercial flop due to limited distribution and the lack of a hit single. It disappeared quickly from circulation and was only found by chance by fans scouring the bins for other releases. The D&D label has recently been resurrected as a way to get Guaraldi's work back in ...

Vince Guaraldi: Oaxaca

by David Rickert
November 18, 2004

"Dr. Funk" may seems like an odd nickname for Vince Guaraldi, most known for composing the music for the Peanuts specials, yet this is how he was known by his peers. While there are certainly others more deserving of the moniker, this new reissue will shed some light as to how he got it. For in the latter part of his career Guaraldi spent time fronting a jazz-rock band in addition to his recurring gig writing music for cartoons. Largely ...

Vince Guaraldi Trio: A Boy Named Charlie Brown

by David Rickert
November 11, 2004

By any standard, “Linus and Lucy" is a great song. Anyone over the age of seven is familiar with the melody, a catchy tune instantly identifiable with the Peanuts gang. It also put Vince Guaraldi, an artist who might otherwise have been a one-hit wonder with “Cast Your Fate To the Wind" and relegated to the minor leagues, on the map.Guaraldi's reputation rests almost entirely on the music he created for the Peanuts television specials, but it's magnificent ...

Vince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas

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 ...

Vince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas

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 ...