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| Concord Records Releases ’A Charlie Brown Christmas’ For anyone who grew up during the '60s, the music from the beloved animated TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas resonates with deep sentimental meaning. That swinging soundtrack by the Vince Guaraldi Trio is as much a part of our musical upbringing as the early Beatles, Stones and Dylan albums and has continued to register with successive generations in rebroadcasts every year since its 1965 premiere. Memorable melodies like the cheerful "Linus And Lucy, " the whimsically swinging "Skating, " the bittersweet "Christmastime Is Here" and the groovy boogaloo "Christmas is Coming" have become ingrained in our collective consciousness. Like those Beatles, Stones and Dylan records, Guaraldi's jazzy score has endured. Now, 41 years after its initial airing and 30 years after the pianist-composer himself passed away from a heart attack in 1976 at age 47, Fantasy is releasing a new Expanded Edition of this holiday favorite. Remixed in stereo using 24-bit remastering from the original tapes and featuring the original cover art reinstated with the approval of United Media and the Estate of Charles Schultz, A Charlie Brown Christmas includes four previously unissued bonus tracks by the Vince Guaraldi Trio (featuring Fred Marshall on bass and Jerry Granelli on drums). In his liner notes to this Expanded Edition, writer Joel Selvin explains how the seed for Guaraldi's participation in A Charlie Brown Christmas was planted when San Francisco-based television producer Lee Mendelson was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge and happened to hear "Cast Your Fate To The Wind, " the pianist's hit record from 1963. As Selvin writes: "He was reaching the final stages of what was only his second TV documentary, a black and white profile of cartoonist Charles Schulz, whose Peanuts strip was looming larger in the pop firmament every day at the time. Mendelson had been thinking about Dave Brubeck or Cal Tjader, his San Mateo High schoolmate, for the music, but this record on the radio sounded perfect. He had just never heard of the artist -- pianist Vince Guaraldi." San Francisco native Guaraldi began making his mark on the West Coast jazz scene in the 1950s under the apprenticeship of such bandleaders as trombonist Frank Rosolino, trumpeter Conte Candoli and vibraphonist Cal Tjader. His debut as a leader, Modern Music From San Francisco, came in 1955 and was followed by a string of cool jazz trio releases for the Fantasy label, including 1957's Jazz Impressions, 1958's A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing and 1960's The Latin Side of Vince Guaraldi, the pianist's first encounter with bossa nova (three years before Stan Getz's landmark Getz/Gilberto album, which contained the mega-hit "Girl From Ipanema"). Guaraldi pursued his infatuation with samba and bossa nova music in late 1962 with Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus, his take on the Antonio Carlos Jobim/Luiz Bonfa score for the film Black Orpheus. When Fantasy Records released a single from the album, Guaraldi's own "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" was on the B-side. That catchy tune ended up ! reaching No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 and later won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Jazz Composition in 1963. It was also the subject of a three-part Educational Television documentary, "Anatomy of a Hit, " produced by the respected San Francisco Chronicle jazz critic Ralph J. Gleason. Guaraldi was subsequently recruited by filmmaker Lee Mendelson to write original music for his documentary on Charles Schulz and the Peanuts phenomenon, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, which included a few minutes of rough-hewn animation featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and Lucy. As Selvin writes in his liner notes to A Charlie Brown Christmas (Expanded Edition): "In April 1965, an advertising executive who had seen the Schulz documentary and remembered the short cartoon phoned to ask Mendelson if he would like to put together an animated Christmas special with the Peanuts gang. Mendelson knew he wanted the same music for the cartoon, although the idea of using that kind of jazz score for a children's TV special was like sailing off the edge of the earth at the time; as crazy as writing a cartoon strip for grown-ups about kids." Guaraldi's score for that delightful TV special, which was first broadcast to a national audience via the CBS network on December 9, 1965, included jazzy, elegant piano trio arrangements of such traditional holiday themes as "O Tannenbaum, " "What Child Is This" and "Greensleeeves, " along with a radical recasting of "Little Drummer Boy" (retitled as "My Little Drum"). Guaraldi added such affecting originals as "Christmastime Is Here, " "Christmas Is Coming, " 'Skating" and the energetic "Linus & Lucy" to round out the joyous soundtrack, which effectively introduced millions of kids (and their parents) to jazz. The melding of Guaraldi's cool jazz and Schulz's warm-hearted characters proved to be a perfect match. As Shawn Haney wrote in the All Music Guide to Jazz: "Guaraldi strings together elegant, enticing arrangements that reflect the spirit and mood of Schulz's work and introduce contemporary jazz to youngsters with grace, charm and creativity. (His) penetrating improvisatio! nal phrases paint pictures of the first winter snowfall, myriads of glistening trees and powdery white landscapes. With its blend of contemporary jazz and lyrical mannerisms, A Charlie Brown Christmas is a joyous and festive meditation for the holiday season." Guaraldi went on to work with Mendelson on 15 Charlie Brown TV specials while also recording several albums as a leader that reflected his ongoing interest in jazz waltzes, bossa novas and ruminative ballads. "I don't think I'm a great piano player, "Guaraldi once said. "But I would like to have people like me, to play pretty tunes and reach the audience. And I hope some of those tunes would become standards. I want to write standards, not just hits." write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |