The greater San Francisco-area jazz community was
quite tight in the late 1950s and early ’60s; not only did all the players know
each other, they likely all performed together at some point during their
careers. It’s therefore no surprise when I come across yet another musician who
worked with Guaraldi, even if only briefly.
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| Dalt Williams |
Today’s case in point is Dalt Williams, born and
raised in Vallejo, California, where his music interest initially found him
playing trumpet and tuba. He enlisted in the U.S. Army following high school,
and soon found himself in the 438th Army Band at Camp Stoneman, in Pittsburgh,
California. This was in the 1950s.
“They wanted to form a jazz group,” Dalt recalled,
during a recent chat, “and a friend of mine was studying theory with Jack
Weeks, well known for his work then with Cal Tjader. My friend suggested that I
tag along, and I said sure. I’d been playing sousaphone at the time, but thanks
to Jack, that’s how I got started on the bass.”
The bass subsequently became Dalt’s instrument of
choice. A few years later, after his military service concluded, he resumed his
formal education.
“I transferred to San Francisco State, and was
playing with groups in the city. I got a call from Vince one day, it probably
was some time in 1958, wanting to know if I was available, so I wound up
working a few gigs with his trio. I remember the first one very well: It was
for a dance at the NCO Club on Treasure Island, which still was a naval base
back then.”
Dalt is certain that a few other gigs followed,
but details are lost in the haze of more than half a century gone by. But his
memory of Vince remains fond.
“He was an amazing player, and a straight-ahead
guy. We’d have played standards at that dance; he’d call ’em, and we just
played ’em. It was a smooth fit; as a bass player, I remember it was easy to
follow along.”
Alas, no photos were taken of this meeting between
rising pianist and bassist.
The stint with Vince was brief, and Dalt soon
found himself a regular part of the Al Trobbe Trio. Graduation and a degree in
music education from San Francisco State followed, after which Dalt happily
embraced a 35-year career as a teacher. He never saw Vince again.
Even while teaching, Dalt found time to gig here
and there. Today he’s part of a combo that bills itself as Jazz for All Occasions, which promises “swingin’ jazz for your
event ... public or private, in the San Francisco Bay Area or Northern
California.” Jazz obviously remains a passion.
“The idea is to book the gigs,” he chuckles, “get
out, and have some fun!”
********
The luxurious Japanese magazine Pen devotes its February 2016 issue to
Charles M. Schulz and his Peanuts legacy, likely timed to anticipate the April
23 opening of a special Peanuts Museum in Roppongi, Tokyo. (Exhibits are
scheduled to shift every six months, but the museum will remain open only for
two years ... so if you’re interested, get those plane tickets now!)
A small delegation from the magazine visited Northern
California in early December: a reporter and photographer, who flew all the way
from Japan; and an interpreter, who lives in Los Angeles and joined them. They
spent most of a week in and around the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa,
California, while also taking in landmarks such as the Peanuts-fied Santa Rosa
Airport and Schulz’s grave site.
They also arranged to chat with some fans, which
is how we connected. The brief visit was captivating, on both sides, and the
interview was intriguing; they hit us with some unusual questions. (I should
mention that Pen’s target readership
is single male, thirtysomething professionals; the magazine looks like a
sophisticated cross between GQ and Harper’s.)
The February issue devotes 72 of its 126 pages to
All Things Peanuts, and Guaraldi got his due, with a nice two-page spread
devoted to his Peanuts work. I’ve included them here; if any of this blog’s
readers know Japanese, I’d love to know what’s written about him!
That same issue of Pen magazine also gives a page to young Japanese pop musician
Shunsuke Watanabe, which piqued my curiosity: What, I wondered, was his
involvement with Peanuts and/or Guaraldi?
It turns out that Watanabe also fronts
Schroeder-Headz, a “post-jazz trio” of piano, bass and drums. To quote the
trio’s web site, “The group takes its name from toy piano player Schroeder,
from the famous Peanuts comic strip, and a peek inside the mind of a boy
influenced by classical, jazz, dance and electronic music. The name also
expresses the respect the group has for the Vince Guaraldi Trio, composers of
the iconic music from the Peanuts animations.”
The trio’s 2011 EP, Piano a la Carte, opens with a lively pop-jazz cover of Guaraldi’s
“Linus and Lucy.” The disc also includes covers of Erik Satie’s “Gymnopédie No.
1” and Young-Holt Unlimited’s 1968 hit, “Soulful Strut,” along with three other
tracks.
Schroeder-Headz can be seen in several YouTube
videos, one featuring “Linus and Lucy.” U.S. residents can purchase the disc,
if so desired, via CDJapan.
********
I’m always amused when my pop-culture fixations
cross-pollinate, and this most recent example was quite unexpected.
I’ve been a longtime fan of author Leslie
Charteris’ Simon Templar — better known as The Saint, the “Robin Hood of modern
crime” — ever since I was a lad, when my father shared his Triangle Books
hardcover editions of the debonair hero’s early adventures. I’ve since devoured
The Saint’s escapades in every available medium, from books, comic books and
newspaper strips; to radio shows, TV shows and the big screen. (Simon does get
around.)
I’ve recently been enjoying Ian Dickerson’s The Saint on the Radio, a pleasurably
exhaustive guide to the character’s many appearances in the medium that
preceded television. The best-known cycle was the CBS-Radio series that began
July 9, 1947, and featured Vincent Price as Charteris’ beloved character. Price
continued to voice Templar through May 14, 1951, although after the first
season the show moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System, and then to NBC-Radio.
Early in the character’s radio run, Simon adopted
a signature whistle: a brief little melody that became his trademark, and later
was a recognized element of the title theme to the 1960s TV show that starred
Roger Moore.
Imagine my surprise, then, when Dickerson’s book
revealed that, starting with Price’s 22nd Saint-ly episode — “Playing with
Fire,” broadcast December 3, 1947 — the signature theme was whistled by Maurice
“Muzzy” Marcellino.
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| Muzzy Marcellino, during an appearance on the Lawrence Welk Show |
Avid Guaraldi buffs will recognize Muzzy as one of
Guaraldi’s mother’s two brothers. Muzzy and Joe, both professional musicians
and bandleaders, had a great deal to do with their nephew Vince’s childhood
interest in jazz.
Aside from his bandleading career, Muzzy also
became quite well known for his whistling skills. As I mention in my Guaraldi
bio, Muzzy (among other assignments) dubbed John Wayne in 1954’s The High and the Mighty, when the
actor’s character whistled Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington’s memorable main
theme. Muzzy repeated that assignment during the March 1955 broadcast of the
annual Academy Awards, when the tune was nominated for Best Song; he whistled
the open verse as a solo, then stepped aside to allow Johnny Desmond to sing
the bulk of the song.
Additionally, and perhaps most famously, an entire
generation of children heard Muzzy every week for many years, when he performed
Les Baxter’s “whistle theme” to the TV series Lassie.
I had known all about those and various other
highlights of Muzzy’s whistling career ... but his involvement with The Saint
was a revelation.
So, there you go: Thanks to Marcellino, Guaraldi
and Simon Templar are linked by only two degrees of separation!
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