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Vince Guaraldi: The Charlie Brown Suite & Other Favorites
by David Rickert
Vince Guaraldi has earned a large degree of renown and cemented his place in musical history as the composer of “Linus and Lucy” and the rest of the music for the Charlie Brown TV specials. Guaraldi died in 1976, and thus this new collection is the first by the pianist to appear in quite some time. These recordings came from the personal collection of George Winston (an unabashed Guaraldi fan) and were shepherded into release by Guaraldi’s son David.
Continue ReadingVince Guaraldi: The Charlie Brown Suite & Other Favorites
by Russell Moon
New Age star pianist George Winston has collected tapes of eighty hours of previously unreleased recordings by the late pianist Vince Guaraldi, who died in 1976. Winston recently made these tapes available to Guaraldi's son David. Although the elder Guaraldi recorded this material for Fantasy and Warner Brothers, its current custodian is releasing the first batch of the Winston collection on BMG/RCA/Bluebird.Guaraldi's music for the Peanuts cartoons has been released on four albums: A Boy Named Charlie Brown, ...
Continue ReadingVince Guaraldi: Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus
by David Rickert
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 ...
Continue ReadingVince Guaraldi & Bola Sete: Vince & Bola
by Derek Taylor
The ascendancy of the Bossa Nova ‘craze’ in the late 1950s and '60s was birthed by a succession of highly successful musical partnerships--Laurindo Almeida and Bud Shank, Sergio Mendes and Herbie Mann, Stan Getz and just about every major Brazilian musician of the day including Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto--all were major proponents of the style. One partnership that is often bypassed in discussions of the music is that shared between Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete and California-based cool jazz ...
Continue ReadingVince Guaraldi Trio: Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits
by Douglas Payne
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 ...
Continue ReadingVince Guaraldi / Cal Tjader: The Grace Cathedral Concert
by Douglas Payne
The beautiful Grace Cathedral sits majestically atop San Francisco's famed, and exclusive, Nob Hill. It was the Reverend Charles Gompertz who in 1963 expressed a desire to achieve a “modern setting for the choral Eucharist" (i.e.: make the New Testament sound cool). Along with Barry Mineah, choral director at St. Paul's Church of San Rafael, Gompertz sought out San Francisco resident Vince Guaraldi (1928-1976) to help achieve this goal. At the time, Guaraldi was enjoying the fruits of a recent ...
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