{"id":8104,"date":"2023-01-19T19:51:41","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T19:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=8104"},"modified":"2023-01-22T20:44:05","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T20:44:05","slug":"music-a-charlie-brown-christmas-vince-guaraldi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=8104","title":{"rendered":"MUSiC: A Charlie Brown Christmas, Vince Guaraldi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Utterly gorgeous! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had wanted to get this in time for the 2022 Yuletide season. But I didn\u2019t. But, with gift voucher funds from Teresa and Patrick, I did finally get it after<\/em> Xmas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking frankly, and especially as I\u2019ve loved Guaraldi\u2019s A Boy Named Charlie Brown<\/em> for years now, I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s taken me over a half a century to get around to buying this. A truly terrific recording, this gets my occasional – and reserved for only the berry vest – six<\/em> stars. It\u2019s just utterly wonderful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s one of those instances where less is more. Much, much more, in this case. Jazz is a musical style in which sometimes the tempos can be high, the vibe intense, and the notes hyper-abundant. This collection, however, belongs to a mellower more Chet Baker-esque jazz world. A musical universe of pretty melodies, and spare pared down playing. I love it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s not just Guaraldi\u2019s own playing and composing that benefits from this approach. The sidemen here* are, for the most part (a little less so on one or two of the added bonus tracks at the end; we\u2019ll get to them later), the essence of tastefully restrained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Linus and Lucy\u2019 is revisited on this recording, and is a case in point: the main theme is just piano – a beautifully rumbling train like piano – against very<\/em> minimalist drumming, with the bass dropping out altogether. But the keys and drums duo sound is remarkably full. The bass appears when they go into the B-section, sometimes bossa, sometimes swing; but the vibe remains resolutely Spartan. Fantastic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently Guaraldi\u2019s \u2019earthy\u2019 style garnered him the nickname Dr Funk, on the local music scene of his native San Francisco, where he came to fame playing with Cal Tjader. And, whilst talking about learning more about this dude and his music, I\u2019m definitely keen to find out if more of Guaraldi\u2019s work, Schulz related or otherwise, is as good as the two Charlie Brown themed albums I now have. And to that end I intend to check out this NPR show<\/a> on him:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Looks interesting!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of Guaraldi\u2019s drummers, Jerry Granelli, is either still going, or only recently passed. I remember watching him not long ago, online (YouTube, no doubt), including in a trio performing Guaraldi\u2019s Peanuts stuff. It struck me that Granelli\u2019s kit looked like an Ayotte, a Canadian drum brand of which I have a beautiful example. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guaraldi himself passed away quite young, aged just 47. He was busy musically till the end, working on further Peanuts stuff, gigging, skiiing, and then boom\u2026 killed by a massive heart attack! Sad, really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to the CD, and happier thoughts! The material is a mixture of trad Christmas stuff, from O Tannenbaum to Mel Torm\u00e9\u2019s evergreen classic, The Christmas Song, with some Greensleeves, and a brief but beautiful Fur Elise, by Beethoven, as well as a good fistful of superb Guaraldi originals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The liner notes to the CD are good, and talk about Guaraldi\u2019s modest self-appraisal, and his desire to make pretty music, and be loved for it. Well, I agree with the liner notes author; you did it Vince, and we love ya! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few pieces have vocals from a children\u2019s choir, which just adds to the festive charm. The Choir of St Paul\u2019s Episcopal Church do themselves and the music proud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re interested, you can read more on the Peanut\u2019s Yuletide special here<\/a>. Rather like the two page comic strip ad for the special itself, that Schulz produced (which finds Charlie Brown lamenting the commercialisation of the season), all this stuff, the music included, had a beautifully gentle and lightly wistful edge to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Utterly lovely! Can\u2019t recommend it highly enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Apparently Guaraldi wasn\u2019t the best at keeping accurate records of who performed on his dates. Which has lead to some confusion over personnel credits. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Utterly gorgeous! I had wanted to get this in time for the 2022 Yuletide season. But I didn\u2019t. But, with gift voucher funds from Teresa and Patrick, I did finally get it after Xmas. Speaking frankly, and especially as I\u2019ve loved Guaraldi\u2019s A Boy Named Charlie Brown for years now, I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s taken … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MUSiC: A Charlie Brown Christmas, Vince Guaraldi”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[178,138,116,200,89,70,162,110,130,176,133,135,77,68,10,214,104],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-26I","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8104"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8104"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8109,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8104\/revisions\/8109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}