Vince Guaraldi: You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown

Many a jazz fan was first exposed to the music through pianist Vince Guaraldi's soundtracks for the long series of animated television specials featuring Charles Schulz's evergreen Peanuts characters. That alone would secure Guaraldi's place in the jazz pantheon, but he is also remembered as a composer of the hit song "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" as well as for his forays into Brazilian music, including the popular 1962 album Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus (Fantasy) and a series of records with guitarist Bola Sete, beginning with Vince Guaraldi, Bola Sete & Friends (Fantasy, 1964). That said, his Peanuts music, including such indelible compositions as "Linus and Lucy," "Oh, Good Grief" and "Little Birdie" will forever be Guaraldi's primary legacy and, for this reason, the series of expanded soundtrack releases by original Peanuts specials producer Lee Mendelson has been most welcome. Mendelson passed away in 2019 at the age of 86, but Lee Mendelson Film Productions is continuing these releases under the guidance of producers Jason and Sean Mendelson.

1972's You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown, if not the most remembered of the animated specials, contained one of Guaraldi's most interesting soundtracks. It was here that Guaraldi first extensively utilized the Fender Rhodes electric piano, first welcomed his longtime electric bassist Seward McCain to the world of Charlie Brown and first sang on a Peanuts track his funky and beguiling "Joe Cool." The album includes the entire set of musical cues from the special—many in expanded form, omitting the edits made to sync to visual cues—as well as a series of unused tracks and alternate takes. The music is uniformly delightful and extremely varied, incorporating the Dixieland title theme, Rhodes-led funk ("Joe Cool," presented in both vocal and unused instrumental reprise format), high-velocity acoustic piano jazz ("Cookin' Snoopy"), the gorgeous new "Incumbent Waltz," which is reminiscent of the style of the epochal A Charlie Brown Christmas (Fantasy, 1965) and fascinating reprises of classics "Oh, Good Grief" and "Linus and Lucy" in new styles, often featuring just the bridge. A standout of the bonus tracks is new tune "African Sleigh Ride," a mysterious modal 5/4 jazz fusion tune played on the Rhodes and featuring lovely bass playing by McCain. This would be utilized in a future Peanuts special, but the version here almost could be mistaken for a lost Chick Corea track. The album is as delightful as anything Guaraldi did for Schulz's creations, marred only by the brevity of some cues and the repetition of the many reprises and alternate takes.

The vinyl release is especially good, with extensive liner notes from Peanuts historian Derrick Bang as well as co-producer Sean Mendelson. The record has been beautifully pressed by Optimal in Germany onto "BioVinyl," a new zero-carbon PVC that utilizes spent cooking oil rather than petroleum as a source of ethylene. The sound of the restored audio, transferred from the 2" 16-track masters at high resolution and remixed by Terry Carleton, is superb. Excluding the unmatchable triumvirate of the Christmas, Halloween and Thanksgiving specials, You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown may well be one of the best Guaraldi soundtracks, and this album does the music full justice.

Comments