Impressions of Vince
Commentary, discussions and random thoughts about San Francisco-born jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, beloved by many — including those who recognize his music, but not his name — and affectionately known as Dr. Funk
Monday, April 21, 2025
Mellow yellow!
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
A milestone anniversary
This is Guaraldi-related only to a slight degree ... but an important one.
All sorts of things and events will help mark this year's 75th anniversary of Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts newspaper strip, but Abrams ComicArts likely will take center stage with this lavish coffee table book.
The Essential Peanuts — an opulent hardcover in a slipcase — is assembled by Mark Evanier. It presents the most iconic and essential Peanuts comic strips with fresh historical and cultural context. The book also features an introduction by Patrick McDonnell, a foreword by Jean Schulz, and contributions from 15 notable commentators. The book is designed by Chip Kidd, and includes a portfolio of collectible Peanuts ephemera: postcards, prints, an embroidered patch, stickers and a facsimile of a classic Peanuts comic book.
“Having loved Peanuts since I was about Charlie Brown's age (and no more successful at kite-flying), I was thrilled when Abrams ComicArts asked me to spend weeks reading and writing about the comic strip that was so much more than just a comic strip,” Evanier said. “The only drawback was that I tried writing the book sitting on the roof of a doghouse, but I kept falling off.”
Evanier is the award-winning author of Kirby: King of Comics and MAD Art. A respected writer, historian and editor, he has worked extensively in the worlds of comic books and television, earning a reputation as one of the foremost authorities on comics and animation. Evanier has earned three Emmy Award nominations, and he received the Lifetime Achievement Award for animation from the Writers Guild of America.
“As we mark 75 years of Peanuts, this partnership with Abrams ComicArts is a testament to the lasting impact of Schulz’s beloved characters,” noted Craig Herman, vice-president of Global Brand Experiences, and Publishing, at Peanuts Worldwide. “Since being introduced to the world on October 2, 1950, Peanuts has been at the forefront of pop culture, and we can’t wait for fans to discover this extraordinary anniversary edition.”
The Essential Peanuts underscores how and why the comic strip transcends cultural, generational and linguistic barriers to remain relevant and beloved. By exploring Schulz's creative ambition, his wry commentary on childhood struggles and triumphs, and his enduring influence on art, literature and everyday life, Evanier not only celebrates an incomparable legacy, but also reveals the universal appeal at the heart of Peanuts.
The 15 commentators:
• Robb Armstrong
• Rob Boutilier
• Paige Braddock
• Alberto Brambilla
• Benjamin L. Clark
• Ben Folds
• Sarah Gillespie
• Chip Kidd
• Amy Lago
• Mike Massimino
• Akio Matsunaga
• Jeff Morrow
• Hilary Price
• Shuntaro Tanikawa ...
...and me, thus the Guaraldi connection. My essay discusses how Dr. Funk became involved with Schulz's characters, when Lee Mendelson heard "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" on his car radio at an opportune moment.
Save coffee table space for this one, because you won't want to miss it. The Essential Peanuts will hit bookstores just in time for the actual 75th anniversary, on October 2, 2025.
Monday, March 24, 2025
A couple of terrific reunions
Two new YouTube goodies absolutely deserve your attention.
The first is the most recent episode of Heath Holland’s Cereal at Midnight podcast, an ongoing program that he cheerfully describes as “the culmination of an entire lifetime of nerdy pursuits.”
That’s a fair descriptor of many episodes, but I wouldn’t call this one nerdy.
With an assist from Jason and Sean Mendelson, and timed to the upcoming release of the soundtrack for It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, Heath gathered three veteran jazzmen — drummers Mike Clark (perhaps best known for working with Herbie Hancock) and Eliot Zigmund (famously with Bill Evans), and bassist Seward McCain (Mose Alison, Cleo Lane and others) — for a group Zoom session, to discuss their long-ago stints as members of Vince Guaraldi’s various combos.
The hour-long result is a wealth of reminiscences, anecdotes and some observations about jazz itself. Aside from their times with Guaraldi, topics include the respective jazz scenes in New York and San Francisco — and the often notorious divide between East and West Coast jazz — and how exposure to classical music (!) influenced their careers.
It's also fun to see how these three guys genuinely enjoy the camaraderie. Goodness, Seward and Eliot hadn’t seen or spoken to each other in decades.
I don’t want to spoil the viewing experience, but — as I furiously jotted notes — a few nuggets are worth mentioning.
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Seward McCain and Vince Guaraldi at Butterfield's circa 1974-76 |
Mike’s comment is almost unbelievable, because he didn’t realize he was making music for a television special: “[Vince] would call and say we’d be in the studio that day, no clue what we’d be playing. I don’t recall him ever saying anything about Charlie Brown. He’d just say, Okay, give me a groove like this, or give me 28 seconds of this, and I had no idea what it was for. He’d play like Wynton Kelly, and we’d just swing all night. And then this stuff aired on TV for years, before I even knew I was on it!”
Eliot credits his time in Vince’s trio with getting him the gig with Bill Evans; Mike recalls being recommended to Guaraldi by saxophonist Vince Denham, and fondly recalls the “great jams” at San Francisco’s Pierce Street Annex. All three men still perform; Eliot, soon to turn 80, wittily observes that “Drummers need to stay in good shape. I don’t dig carrying the drums, but I love playing them.”
And here’s something I never knew before: Mike mentions playing classical music with Vince at San Francisco’s Glide Memorial Church. (It’s worth noting that chanteuse Faith Winthrop, who was backed by Guaraldi’s early hungry i trio, founded that church’s community gospel group.)
Seriously, Mike? When? When?!?
All three still remember Vince fondly.
“Vince was fun to be around,” Eliot says, wistfully, “and he loved to swing.”
“Vince played with rhythm, and he was in the groove,” Seward adds. “His notes were a lot of fun. Vince laid it down.”
“He had a dirty beat,” Mike concurs. “He could play New York style. And he could play two-handed boogie-woogie like nobody else.”
Referencing the fact that Guaraldi can be heard saying “Cue 1!” at the top of the first track on the Easter Beagle album, Mike adds, “As soon as I heard his voice, it hit me in the heart, and made me think how much I loved that guy.”
Amen to that.
********
The aforementioned album concludes with a truly special bonus track, recorded in 2021 at the same San Francisco studio where this soundtrack was laid down half a century ago: a brand-new “Woodstock Medley” — blending “Woodstock’s Wake-Up,” “Little Birdie,” “Woodstock’s Dream” and “Thanksgiving Theme” — by the trio of Seward, Mike and pianist David Benoit. It’s a fabulous performance, running just shy of 7 minutes.
I’ve known, pretty much since the medley was laid down, that Sean and Jason also filmed it ... and I’ve yearned, for almost four years, to see that footage.
Well, now everybody can watch it, in Sean’s marvelous music video, which he co-produced with Jason, and co-edited with Palmer Mendelson. The film is a captivating document of the studio performance, interspersed with brief “talking head” commentaries by the three musicians.
The nicest, heart-tugging touch: a final shot of Lee Mendelson, wielding a clapboard, while standing in front of Peanuts memorabilia that includes an impressively huge stuffed Snoopy.
Honesty, guys; clap yourselves on the back. This is a treasure!
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Full Impressions!
Thursday, February 6, 2025
Record Store Day surprises!
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Chart action: The 2024 holiday season
Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Egg-citing news!
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Last-minute stocking stuffers?
Two new albums debuted this month, definitely of interest to Guaraldi fans.
In addition to this post, both also have been added (after the fact) to this year’s December 1 update of “The Sincerest Form of Flattery,” so you’ll want to check out how they scored.
Meanwhile...
This first newcomer, I must confess, was a bit of an eyebrow-lift.
Welsh musician Amanda Whiting is the first known person in the UK to obtain a Master’s Degree of Jazz in harp ... an achievement that initially seemed an oxymoron.
Jazz harp? Seriously?
And yet she definitely proves it, with the seasonal and heavily Guaraldi-influenced A Christmas Cwtch. That latter word is Welsh for cuddle, or embrace, which perfectly describes this lovely album.
Whiting is backed by the jazz duo of Aidan Thorne, bass; and Mark O’Connor, drums and percussion; their contributions mostly favor quiet shading and comping. Lucia Capellaro also adds soft cello touches during a leisurely reading of “In the Bleak Midwinter.”
Whiting opens and closes her album with fleeting solo riffs on “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” cleverly subtitled (respectively) “The Night Before” and “Has He Been?” The album’s quieter tunes are highlighted by her contemplative improv bridges, as heard in the moody, mysterious “Sugarplum”; a sweet and wistful handling of the Peanuts “Happiness Theme”; and a solemn arrangement of Bill Evans’ “Peace Piece.”
Whiting borrows Guaraldi’s familiar arrangements for “The Christmas Song,” “Christmas Time Is Here,” “Skating” and “O Christmas Tree.” The latter opens with solo harp — just like Guaraldi’s solo piano — and then Thorne and O’Connor kick things into a nice, mid-tempo swing. And if you still doubt a harp’s ability to fit in this environment, pay attention to Whiting’s jazz chops during the improv bridge.
She’s equally feisty during a vibrant run at Guaraldi’s “Christmas Is Coming,” which boasts cool walking bass; and the appropriately brisk handling of “Skating,” where her harp cascades evoke snowfall just as successfully as Guaraldi’s keyboard runs. The latter’s swing bridge is particularly cool, as also is the case with the lengthy trio improv bridge in “We Three Kings.”
The occasionally sassy chops aside, this is primarily “pretty jazz,” meant to be enjoyed during the quiet shank of an evening, perhaps while imbibing a final glass of eggnog after a boisterous party. But whatever descriptor is employed, this album definitely belongs in everybody’s collection of holiday music.
I can’t say the same of the next one.
The Commercialists — a Wisconsin-based trio consisting of Anthony Deutsch, piano; Clay Schaub, bass; and Patrick Morrow, drums — is one of many regional U.S. combos that have brightened the holiday season with annual performances of Guaraldi’s music from A Charlie Brown Christmas. Deutsch and his mates have been a popular seasonal draw at numerous venues for slightly more than a decade, and the just-released A Charlie Brown Christmas: Live at The Jazz Estate was recorded at that club on December 22, 2023.
Deutsch is a firecracker pianist with serious chops, best showcased on his trio’s covers of “Linus and Lucy” and “Skating.” But that’s getting ahead of things; the album (appropriately) opens with a Guaraldi-esque arrangement of “O Tannenbaum,” beginning with quiet solo piano and then building to a gentle trio number that grants Schaub a lovely bass solo. “My Little Drum” is next, again sounding like Guaraldi, until Deutsch strays into fresh territory with a vibrant keyboard bridge that offers hints of the familiar melody.
“Christmas Time Is Here” and a peppy “Linus and Lucy” are equally engaging. “Skating” opens with a solid waltz beat, and Deutsch’s keyboard cascades sparkle; the lengthy keyboard bridge improv is backed by feisty walking bass, as the tempo increases ... then everybody brings the tune home.
Alas, this album subsequently goes off the rails.
After introducing the melody in “Christmas Is Coming” (mislabeled on the CD jacket), Deutsch and Schaub wander through a long, increasingly tedious bridge that shoots into the outer stratosphere. A mélange of “The Wassail Song” and “The Christmas Song” begins as Deutsch vocalizes the first tune in overly melodramatic fashion, after which he slides into “Christmas Song” with exaggerated pauses. The sidemen enter, with Schaub’s bass handling a bridge against Deutsch’s irritating, Keith Jarrett-style moaning and mumbling. At just a few seconds shy of 9 minutes, the band’s handling of this medley is beyond self-indulgent.
But Deutsch isn’t finished. He also talks/sings/mumbles his way through an equally lamentable reading of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” which might have made the Jolly Red Elf skip this town entirely.
The album concludes with a “surprise” bonus track, as Deutsch leads the venue patrons through a group sing-along of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sings,” the way A Charlie Brown Christmas concluded. I’m sure this was a sweet touch in person ... but it doesn’t quite work as an album finale.
All told, uneven at best.
Sunday, December 1, 2024
The sincerest form of flattery: 2024 update
Ted Nash, Maxwell Davis and Pete Candoli had released the first cover album, titled simply Peter Gunn, the year before; Nash, Pete and Conte Candoli, calling themselves the Soundstage All Stars, followed with More Peter Gunn in 1959. Drummer Shelly Manne & His Men also released two albums in 1959: Play Peter Gunn and Son of Gunn. The Joe Wilder Quartet joined the fun in 1959, with Jazz from Peter Gunn; Ray Ellis and his Orchestra followed in 1960, with The Best of Peter Gunn. Manne & His Men returned to the well in 1967, with the outré Jazz Gunn (a little too far out for my taste, but that's just one vote).