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Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

TOP TEN LIST December 24, 2018

Top Ten Christmas Jazz Recordings Of All-Time

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 ...

FILM REVIEW December 16, 2016

The 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 ...

ALBUM REVIEW December 19, 2015

Vince 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 ...

BUILDING A JAZZ LIBRARY April 6, 2015

Jazz for Kids!

By AAJ Staff

There is some kind of Jazz for everybody. And kids are no different. While the music presented here is by no means only for kids (Silly Rabbit, it's okay) it does happen to have the necessary qualities for kids to gravitate toward it. There's the fun factor; Horace Silver's music is undoubtedly FUN. There's the “head bob" factor, music that gets their heads a-boppin'; ditto Silver, but Monk is just as danceable in his own way. Finally, there are charismatic, ...

MIX TAPE December 23, 2014

Jazzy Christmas

By Michael Ricci

Enduring holiday classics from Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Kenny Burrell, Bill Evans, Jimmy Smith, Vince Guaraldi and more. TrackNameTimeArtistAlbum1The Christmas Song3:30Ella FitzgeraldElla Wishes You A Swinging Christmas2Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!4:37Joe WilliamsVerve Presents: The Very Best Of Christmas Jazz3Santa Claus Is Coming To Town4:27Bill EvansThe Best Of Bill Evans On Verve4What Are You Doing New Years Eve2:24Nancy WilsonUltra-Lounge: Christmas Cocktails, Part One5Winter Wonderland2:28Chet BakerYule Struttin'6Greensleeves5:28Vince GuaraldiA Charlie Brown Christmas7Christmas Is3:12Lou RawlsStarbucks Holiday8Jingle Bells3:12Jimmy SmithVerve ...

OPINION November 7, 2012

The Importance of Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas

By C. Michael Bailey

Into my heart on air that kills From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, what farms are those? That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went And cannot come again. --A.E. Houseman, A Shropshire Lad (1896) Vince Guaraldi A Charlie Brown Christmas

BOOK REVIEW July 31, 2012

Derrick Bang: Vince Guaraldi at the Piano

By Jeff Dayton-Johnson

Vince Guaraldi at the Piano Derrick Bang 390 pages ISBN: 978-0-7864-5902-5 McFarland Books 2012 Based on Derrick Bang's encyclopedic biography of pianist Vince Guaraldi, you can draw two perhaps surprising conclusions about the subject's contribution to jazz. First, Guaraldi arguably hipped more listeners to this musical form than anyone else since the heyday of the big bands. He did so by means of “Cast Your Fate To The Wind," three minutes ...