A Jolly Guaraldi Holiday 2021

It's time once again for this annual round-up of Guaraldi-themed concerts taking place between now and the end of the year, most of which (of course!) are tied in to his music from A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Last year's schedule proved incredibly fluid, as rising Covid concerns and restrictions constantly changed schedules, sometimes with very little notice. Almost all of the brave souls who attempted to present live, at-venue performances, were forced to pivot to streaming options. While that was disappointing for each group's local fans, the result proved awesome for the rest of us. I was able to watch performances by many, many groups — 24 of them! — that have always been too geographically distant for me to catch in person.

Things are equally up in the air this year. While numerous artists and groups already have optimistically scheduled live performances, we don't yet know whether a Covid "winter bounce" will strike for a second year. As was the case last year, it'll be best to keep an eye on the artist and/or venue web site, to determine if a live presentation has shifted to streaming-only ... or (I hope not!) canceled entirely.

I traced the history and growth of this delightful tradition back in 2012, with a modest schedule that now seems quaint. This year's post will serve as a clearinghouse for any and all 2021 concerts that come to my attention. As always, I'll add to this schedule as new information becomes available, so you'll want to check back frequently. New entries and listings will be tagged as UPDATES.

Let's dig in!

• The Eric Byrd Trio — Byrd, piano and vocals; Bhagwan Khalsa, acoustic bass; Alphonso Young Jr., drums and percussion — has made a cottage industry of Guaraldi's Christmas music, going so far as to cover most of the album in a 2009 CD. Best of all, the trio just released a new album: a live performance recorded during one of their gigs in Westminster, Maryland. Both are available here.  Byrd's combo is booked for 10 shows this year, starting Saturday, November 20, at the Blackrock Center for the Arts in Germantown, Maryland; and concluding Saturday, December 18, at the Carroll Art Center in Westminster, Maryland. Check his web site for details.

• The Chris White Trio — White, piano; Sean Jacobi, bass; and Ryan Jacobi, drums — will kick off a busy schedule with a tribute to the music of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on Wednesday, November 24, at Winter's Jazz Club in Chicago, Illinois. Subsequent Charlie Brown Christmas tribute concerts will begin Saturday and Sunday, December 4 and 5, at Hey Nonny, also in Chicago. Details. Information about additional Charlie Brown Christmas concerts can be found at Chris' website.

• The Steve Myerson Trio — Myerson, piano; Mike Boone, bass; and George Coleman Jr., drums — will present a Vince Guaraldi Holiday Special on Wednesday, November 24, at Shanghai Jazz in Madison, New Jersey. Details.

• Doc Watkins and His Orchestra will present "Christmas in Jazz," featuring music from A Charlie Brown Christmas during 16 (!) live performances every Friday and Saturday, from November 26 through December 18, at JazzTX in San Antonio, Texas. Details. He'll also present Big Band Jazz arrangements of Guaraldi's iconic music on Thursday, December 16, at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, also in San Antonio. Details.

• The Eric Mintel Quartet — Mintel, piano; Nelson Hill, sax; Jack Hegyi, bass; and Dave Mohn, drums — also has a busy schedule planned, beginning with Vince Guaraldi & The Holidays on Saturday, November 27, at Shanghai Jazz, Madison, New Jersey; and concluding on Monday, December 20, at Artefact, Furlong, Pennsylvania; with plenty of dates in between. Details at their website.

• UPDATE: The Cartoon Christmas Trio — Jeff Knoettner, piano; Rob Swanson, bass; Jimmy Coleman, drums — performs music from A Charlie Brown Christmas and tunes from other animated holiday shows, such as Frosty the Snowman and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. (Their album is a kick; give it a listen.) They have a busy schedule, starting Wednesday, December 1, at Winterthur Estates and Gardens in Winterthur, Delaware, and concluding Wednesday, December 22, at The Pines, in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Check their calendar for details.

• UPDATE: The Mich Shirey Duo — Shirey, guitar; and Nick Fane, upright bass — will present Guitar for Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas Tribute on Wednesday, December 1, at the Whistler in Chicago, Illinois. Details.

• Popular jazz pianist David Benoit traditionally headlines a busy concert tour of his Christmas Tribute to Charlie Brown each December; alas, his schedule was limited to just two performances last year. He's returning with a vengeance this year, with a 15-stop tour that begins Thursday, December 2, in Natick, Massachusetts; and concludes Thursday, December 23, in San Juan Capistrano, California; with stops along the way in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nebraska, Washington and more. Check his website for details.

• Pianist Keith Byrd and his Frynz combo will present a Charlie Brown Christmas concert on Thursday, December 2, at the Centennial Station Arts Center in High Point, North Carolina. Details.

• The Heather Pierson Acoustic Trio — Pierson, piano; Shawn Nadeau, bass; and Davy Sturtevant, guitar, mandolin, dobro, fiddle, cornet — will begin an ambitious Charlie Brown Christmas tour on Friday, December 3, at the Bangor Arts Exchange in Bangor, Maine. Subsequent stops will includes venues in Vermont and New Hampshire, concluding on Saturday, December 18, at Atac: Downtown Arts + Music in Framingham, Massachusetts. Full details are available at her website calendar.

• The Ed Croft Trio — Croft, bass; Jake Malone Brancato, piano; and Candice Simone Thomas, drums — will present a concert titled "Charlie Brown Is in Town" on Friday and Saturday, December 3 and 4, at the Pausa Art House in Buffalo, New York. Details. They'll follow this with another performance on Sunday, December 5, at the Seneca One Tower, also in Buffalo. Details.

• UPDATE: The Donovan Johnson Band — Johnson, piano; Ed Archibald, sax/flute; Kevin Kerwin, guitar; Steve Gomez, bass; William Nanson, drums; and Kent Barnes, percussion — will be joined by vocalist Stephen Sheehan for The Music of Vince Guaraldi and Peanuts, on Saturday, December 4, at the Omaha Conservatory of Music, Omaha, Nebraska. Details.

• The Ron LeGault Trio will present Charlie Brown Goes to the Nutcracker — Guaraldi's music from the holiday special, blended with jazz versions of music from the Nutcracker Ballet — on three consecutive Saturdays, December 4, 11 and 18, at the St. Julien Hotel & Spa in Boulder, Colorado. Details.

• The Joey Nardone Trio — Nardone, piano; Brian Allen, bass; and Chris Brown, drums — will present their sixth annual tribute to the music of Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas on Sunday, December 5, at City Winery Nashville, Nashville, Tennessee. Details.

• The John Sherwood Trio — Sherwood, piano; Scott Alexander, bass; and Brian Barlow, drums — will perform the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas on Sunday, December 5, at the Empire Theatre, Belleville, Ontario, Canada. Details.

• UPDATE: The Mich Shirey Trio — Shirey, guitar; Nick Fane, upright bass; and Dave Brandwein, drums — will present Guitar for Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas Tribute on Sunday, December 5, at the Montrose Saloon in Chicago, Illinois. Details.

• Saxophonist Patrick Lamb and his Quartet — Dan Gaynor, piano; Dan Balmer, guitar; and Adam Carlson, drums — will perform the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas on Monday, December 6, at the Tower Theater in Bend, Oregon. Details.

• UPDATE: The Ed Vezinho and Jim Ward Big Band — featuring some of Atlantic City's finest showroom musicians — will perform the score from A Charlie Brown Christmas on Monday, December 6, at the Stockton Studies in the Arts' Campus Center Theatre, in Galloway, New Jersey. Details.

• The Peter Roberts Band will perform the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas on three consecutive Tuesdays — December 7, 14 and 21 — at Noce, Des Moines, Iowa. Details.

• The Jim Martinez Jazz Quartet — Arlyn Anderson, guitar; Matt Robinson, bass; and Tim Metz, drums — and guest vocalist Lauren Ross will present the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas on Friday, December 10, at the Fair Oaks Church in Fair Oaks, California. Details.

• The Stanford Jazz Workshop will host The Glen Pearson Trio — Pearson, piano; Ruth Davies, bass; and Lorca Hart, drums — in three performances of the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas, Friday through Sunday, December 10-12, at the Campbell Recital Hall, Stanford, California. Details.

• TT Mahony and Jeffrey Butzer will present their annual tribute to A Charlie Brown Christmas for three nights — Friday through Sunday, December 10-12 — at The Earl, in Atlanta, Georgia. Details. 

• The Cliff Habian Quartet — Habian, piano; Pete Cavano, guitar; Jeff Slater, bass; and Eric Everett, drums — will present A Tribute to the Music of Vince Guaraldi on Saturday, December 11, at The Fine Arts Association in Willoughby, Ohio. Details.

• UPDATE: The Vince Guaraldi Trio-bute — Alan Zemaitis, piano; Christopher Kettlewell, bass guitar; and Kyle Sullivan, drums — will perform the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas on Saturday, December 11, at The Dakota Tavern, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Details.

• The Taurey Butler Trio — Butler, piano; Frédéric Alarie, bass; and Wali Muhammad, drums — will present the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas on Saturday, December 11, at Pierrefonds-Roxboro, in Montreal, Quebec. Details.

• The Konrad Paszkudzki Trio, along with guest vocalist Olivia Chindamo, will celebrate the season with The Music of Vince Guaraldi on Sunday, December 12, at Saint Joseph's Arts Society, San Francisco, California. Details.

• UPDATE: The Jim Connerley Trio — Connerley, piano; Eric Sayer, bass; and Ben Bratton, drums — will present their annual tribute to A Charlie Brown Christmas on Sunday, December 12, at the Mansion Hill Sanctuary in Newport, Kentucky. Details.

• The Michelle Schumann Trio — Schumann, piano; Utah Hamrick, bass; and David Sierra, drums — will be joined by special guests for a performance of Vince Guaraldi's music from A Charlie Brown Christmas on Sunday, December 12, at the Paramount Theatre, Austin, Texas. Details.

• The Jose "Juicy" Gonzales Trio — Gonzales, piano and vocals; Michael Marcus, bass; and Matt Jorgensen, drums — will present its 10th annual tribute to the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas on Sunday, December 12, at the Cornish Playhouse in Seattle, Washington. Details.

• UPDATE: The Mich Shirey Trio — Shirey, guitar; Nick Fane, upright bass; and Dave Brandwein, drums — will present Guitar for Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Christmas Tribute on Monday, December 13, at the aptly named Café Mustache in Chicago, Illinois. Details.

• TT Mahony and Jeffrey Butzer will perform the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas Tuesday, December 14, at MadLife Stage & Studios, Woodstock, Georgia. Details. 

• The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra will present Vince Guaraldi's music during a special presentation of A Charlie Brown Christmas — narrated by Quinn Greene, and featuring vocalist Jayme Giesbrecht — on Wednesday, December 15, at the West End Cultural Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Details.

• The Taurey Butler Trio — Butler, piano; Frédéric Alarie, bass; and Wali Muhammad, drums — will be joined by vocalist Marie-Christine Depestre for a performance the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas, on Wednesday and Thursday, December 11-12, at Salle Bourgie in Montreal, Quebec. Details.

• UPDATE: David Ellington's Peanut Gallery will perform the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas on Tuesday through Thursday, December 14-16; Sunday, December 19; and Tuesday through Thursday, December 21-23; at Venkman's in Atlanta, Georgia. Details. 

• The Michelle Schumann Trio — Schumann, piano; Utah Hamrick, bass; and David Sierra, drums — will present their annual concert of music from A Charlie Brown Christmas during afternoon and evening performances Thursday, December 16, at Stateside at the Paramount, in the Austin Chamber Music Center, Austin, Texas. A virtual option will be available for those unable to attend in person. Details.

• TT Mahony and Jeffrey Butzer will perform the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas Thursday, December 16, at the 40 Watt Club, Athens, Georgia. Details. 

• The Good Grief Trio — Greg Hankins, piano; Luca Lombardi, bass; and Seth Hendershot, drums — will be joined by the Peanuts Choir (SJ Ursrey, William Kissane, Matthew Lawing and Sarah Lawing) for a tribute to Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas Thursday through Saturday, December 16-18, at Hendershot's Coffee Bar in Athens, Georgia. Details.

• The Joe Cool Trio — John Milham, drums; Chris Spies, piano; and Chris Severin, bass — will once again present their 12th annual Charlie Brown Jazz Christmas concert on Friday, December 17, at the Laurel Little Theatre in Laurel, Mississippi. Details.

• UPDATE: The Donovan Johnson Band — Johnson, piano; Ed Archibald, sax/flute; Kevin Kerwin, guitar; Steve Gomez, bass; William Nanson, drums; and Kent Barnes, percussion — will be joined by vocalist Stephen Sheehan for The Music of Vince Guaraldi and Peanuts, on Friday, December 17, at the Omaha Conservatory of Music, Omaha, Nebraska. Details.

• The Jason Frederick Cinematic Trio — Frederick, piano; Scott Wheeler, double bass; and Dan Mullins, drums — will present The Music of Vince Guaraldi on Friday, December 17, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England. Details.

• The David Gleason Sextet — Gleason, piano; Chris Pasin, trumpet; Ben O'Shea, trombone; Brian Patneaude, sax; Michael Lawrence, bass; and Pete Sweeney, drums — will present It's a Jazzy Christmas: Celebrating the Holiday Music of Vince Guaraldi on Friday, December 17, at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, New York. Details.

• The Adam Shulman Trio — Shulman, piano; John Wiitala, bass; and James Gallagher, drums — has performed the music from Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas at SFJazz Center's Miner Auditorium, San Francisco, for the past several years. Last year was solely virtual, but this year they're back to live and in person: Friday and Saturday, December 17-18. (The Friday evening performance also will be streamed, but only to SFJazz members.) Details.

• UPDATE: The Ornaments — Jen Gunderman, piano; Martin Lynds, bass; and James Haggerty, drums — will be joined by numerous special guests for their 16th annual performance of music from A Charlie Brown Christmas Friday through Sunday, December 17-19, at The Wash at Eastside Bowl in Madison, Tennessee. Details.

• The Jason Frederick Cinematic Trio —Frederick, piano; Scott Wheeler, double bass; and Dan Mullins, drums — will present a concert titled A Charlie Brown Christmas and the Music of Vince Guaraldi on Saturday, December 18, at the Colchester Arts Centre in Colchester, Essex, England. Details.

• The Taurey Butler Trio — Butler, piano; Frédéric Alarie, bass; and Wali Muhammad, drums — will be joined by vocalist Marie-Christine Depestre for a performance the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas, on Saturday, December 18, at Le Café culturel de la Chasse-galerie in Lavaltrie, Quebec. Details.

• The Joe Cool Trio — John Milham, drums; Chris Spies, piano; and Chris Severin, bass — will once again present their 12th annual Charlie Brown Jazz Christmas concert on Saturday, December 18, at the Saenger Theatre in Mobile, Alabama. Details.

• The Joe Cool Trio — John Milham, drums; Chris Spies, piano; and Chris Severin, bass — will once again present their 12th annual Charlie Brown Jazz Christmas concert on Sunday, December 19, at the Frog Pond in Silverhilll, Alabama. Details.

• UPDATE: The Mahogany Hall Jazz Ensemble — Patrick Courtin, piano; Andrew Cullen, bass; James McRae, drums; and Simon Paterson, vocals — will perform the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas, along with holiday classics by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and others, on Sunday, December 19, at Knox United Church, Parksville, British Columbia. Details.

• The Jeremy Baum Quartet — Baum, piano; Chris Vitarello, guitar; Sue Williams, upright bass; and David Tedeschi, drums — will present Vince Guaraldi's music from A Charlie Brown Christmas on Tuesday, December 21, at the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York. (Note: This event is solely for guests spending the night.) Details.

• Pianists Alex Guilbert and Chris McCarthy will be joined by other keyboardists for a celebration of the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas on Tuesday, December 21, at the Royal Room in Seattle, Washington. Details.

• The Annie Booth Trio — Booth, pianist; Patrick McDevitt, bass; and Alejandro Castaño, drums — will present their annual Charlie Brown Christmas tribute concerts Tuesday through Friday, December 21-24 — with multiple performances each day — at Dazzle, in Denver, Colorado. Details.

• The Jazz Troubadours — Tom Rickard, vibes; Guy Cantonwine, upright bass; and Steve Davis, drums — will perform the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas on Wednesday, December 22, at Evangeline's Bistro in St. Louis, Missouri. Details.

• The Sean Mason Trio — Mason, piano; Butler Knowles, bass; and Malcolm Charles, drums — will be joined by vocalist Tyra Scott for a quartet of Charlie Brown Christmas concerts Wednesday and Thursday, December 22-23, at Middle C Jazz in Charlotte, North Carolina. Details. 

• The Commercialists — Anthony Deutsch, piano; Clay Schaub, bass; and Patrick Morrow, drums — will perform the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas during a pair of concerts on Thursday, December 23, at the Turner Hall Ballroom in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Details.

• The Duck Soup Trio — Adam Bravo, piano; Anthony Shadduck, bass; and Sam Webster, drums — will present a tribute to A Charlie Brown Christmas and the music of Vince Guaraldi on Thursday, December 23, at Campus Jax in Newport Beach, California. Details.

Yet more vinyl madness: It's a strike!

We’ve come to expect numerous vinyl variants of A Charlie Brown Christmas at this time of the year -- see this earlier post -- but this comes as a surprise.

Turntable Lab has just entered the fray, with a special-edition pressing of A Boy Named Charlie Brown on yellow wax, along with record mats, tote bags and T-shirts, all available in multiple colors. This new “Peanuts collection” is available to pre-order now at TurntableLab.com, and due out December 8.

 

This vinyl reissue of the classic 1964 soundtrack is being released in partnership with Craft Recordings. The album is newly remastered from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. The exclusive yellow vinyl variant comes with a custom obi-strip, and includes eight collectible baseball cards that showcase Charlie Brown’s team of misfits: Snoopy, Woodstock, Peppermint Patty, Linus and Lucy Van Pelt, Franklin Armstrong, Schroeder, and, of course, manager and pitcher, Charlie Brown. The back of each card includes key stats for each player, including field position and favorite sandwich.

The collection’s premium reversible Peanuts Comic Strip Record Slipmat is available in blue, green, and grey. The Peanuts Record Shopping Tote is available in black and natural, and the 100% cotton Peanuts Record Shopping Shirt is available in black, royal blue and gold. The 10 oz cotton canvas tote features silkscreened graphics on both sides and comfortably holds about 30 records. TTL offers the album on its own, or bundled with the Peanuts tote.

I’ll let Turntable Lab co-owner Peter Hahn have the final words:

“As a lifelong Peanuts fan, this collaboration was a dream come true. First and foremost, I wanted to get the ‘Buying Records Cheers Me Up’ panel onto quality, well-printed shirts. That image always spoke to me. For the slipmat design, we were able to dig through the Peanuts archive to find our favorite music- and record collecting-themed strips. We laid them out simply so you could almost read it like a comic book, in between the time you change records. We’ve been using these for a while now, and we’re continually finding new nuances in Charles Schulz’s work.”

I suspect this LP and its accessories will find their way under numerous Charlie Brown Christmas trees this holiday season... 

Colin Bailey: Gentleman drummer

Colin Bailey, Monty Budwig and Vince Guaraldi, performing at The Trident — their
favored "home" for a few years — likely during the autumn of 1961.

“I learned so much from Vince: how to be a better jazz player. He made me play good. He inspired me. When I first started playing with him, I was in over my head; I was quite inexperienced with jazz, at that level. To play with him — that caliber of player, every night — was incredible. I got used to it. Vince improved my playing, just by playing with him and Monty [Budwig].”

 

Sigh.

 

It has been a rough summer.

 

We lost Jerry Granelli on July 20, and I just learned that Colin Bailey left us this past Monday, September 20. He’d been hospitalized with a case of pneumonia, after having recovered from Covid-19. At age 87, the poor guy never had a chance. 

 

He was the final link to Guaraldi’s first two classic trios. Monty Budwig died comparatively early, on March 9, 1992: well over a decade before I even considered writing a Guaraldi bio. Eddie Duran was next, on November 22, 2019; Dean Reilly went earlier this year, on March 9.

 

Colin was one of my most gracious interview subjects, and I loved chatting with him. He and Chuck Gompertz were the most candid, enthusiastic and helpful; I’m hard-pressed to determine which of the two I spent more time with, in person and on the phone … but I’m pretty sure it was Colin.

 

I first met him — after a few phone chats — on April 23, 2010, at his apartment in Martinez. It was a lunchtime visit; I stopped at a sandwich shop en route, and picked up a couple of subs. (I was armed with his preference.) I remember wondering, as I parked at the apartment complex, how a drummer could possibly rehearse at home, without driving half a dozen neighbors out of their minds. The answer was an eye-opener: He’d had a special sound-proofed “cubby” installed in one corner of his living room, with clear walls on two sides. It was just large enough for his kit, and his chair. (Such accommodations may be common among drummers, but it certainly was new to me.) We had lunch, chatted for several hours, and then he happily obliged when (of course!) I asked him to strut his stuff … which he did, for a breathtaking 20 minutes.

 

It was a marvelous afternoon, well worth battling Bay Area traffic during the drive home.

 

Colin was born in Swindon, England, and began playing drums at age 4; by 18, he was working with English name bands. He moved to Australia in the late 1950s, and became a staff drummer at Sydney’s TV Channel 9, which allowed him to work with visiting jazz luminaries such as Dizzy Gillespie and Sarah Vaughan. Colin subsequently joined pianist Bryce Rohde’s Australian Jazz Quartet, which soon was hired to tour the United States as the opening act for the Kingston Trio.

 

“My wife and I got green cards, and sold everything we had. We came over not knowing what would happen; we didn’t have a lot of money. We arrived in the States in 1961, and played San Francisco on the final weekend of the tour; it was a Friday night, May 26. Vince and Monty came by and heard me, and Vince said he liked the way I played, and invited me to sit in during their Monday night gig at the Jazz Workshop.

 

“The next week, I was at a drum shop, just hanging out, and the owner said ‘Hey, there’s a phone call for you.’ It was Vince, saying that he’d like to have me in his trio.

 

“I couldn’t believe my luck; I’d only been in the States for seven weeks, and here Vince was offering me a steady gig. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!”

 

Colin joined Vince’s trio in July 1961, replacing Benny Barth. Colin remained with Guaraldi until January 27, 1963, when he left to join Victor Feldman’s band in Hollywood. Even so, he and Monty continued to worked with Vince occasionally, during the rest of the 1960s.

 

I can’t begin to do justice to Colin’s subsequent career in this space, but his web site has an excellent biography.

 

Colin was present for — and recorded — Guaraldi’s two most significant songs: “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” and “Linus and Lucy.”

 

Colin vividly remembered the sharp learning curve “Fate” forced upon him.

 

“It took a lot, getting to know the logistics of that song, from a drummer’s point of view. I had to learn how to get that cymbal bells Latin sound, and I had to do it with the ring at the end of the brush, because there wasn’t enough time to change brushes to sticks. I also had to use the floor toms — on which I usually keep the sticks or brushes, when I’m not using them — because I had a solo. To this day, I don’t remember how I managed to do that. It was one of the hardest logistical things I’ve ever had to deal with.”

 

Dean Reilly, Colin and Eddie Duran.

Colin and I stayed in touch, which wasn’t true of everybody I interviewed. A few months after my book was published, I had the opportunity to assemble a “dream team” for a private concert on June 30, 2012. I gathered Colin, Dean and Eddie — along with “youngster” Jim Martinez, on piano — for a fabulous 90-minute performance in front of an audience of 100 or so. Talk about a night to remember!

Colin and I lost touch when he and his wife moved south to Port Hueneme, in Ventura County, three years later.

 

The first appendix in my Guaraldi bio is a series of personal comments about him, from the many sidemen who played with him over the years. I concluded the several dozen warm observations with a brief, wistful remark from Colin, which seemed the perfect coda for the book. And it’s the perfect way to end this post.

 

“I wish [Vince] were still here, so we could play again.”

I wish all of them were still here.

Bits & bobs

Photo courtesy of Peggy Tillman

Ever more research resources continue to appear online, and each new discovery often adds a tantalizing nugget — or two, or 20 — to Guaraldi’s career. My most recent find is the California Digital Newspaper Collection, which seems devoted primarily to small, late 19th- and early 20th-century regional newspapers. But the database also includes a healthy number of high school and college newspapers, which delivered some nice nuggets. Several more stops on the Guaraldi/Sete Quartet’s October 1965 California college tour were added to my Guaraldi timeline, and — better yet — a few of the colleges publicized and reviewed the performances.

It’s always fun to see how Guaraldi was perceived at the time, and what he played, and — if interviewed — what he discussed.

 

The quartet performed at Sacramento City College on October 12. Five days earlier, the campus newspaper — The Pony Express — published an article to help promote the upcoming concert. Most of the information clearly was lifted from the publicity packet that the college received ahead of time, which must have been the source of this intriguing second sentence:

 

Pianist Guaraldi and Sete were ordered to combine their acts by “President” Dizzy Gillespie, after they appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1962.

 

I possess copies of several Guaraldi publicity packets, which became more informative as the 1960s progressed; I’ve never before seen that statement. It’s true that Gillespie “discovered” Sete in the spring of 1962, while the latter was performing solo at San Francisco’s Sheraton Palace. And yes, Guaraldi and Sete both performed at the fifth annual Monterey Jazz Festival, in late September … but separately. Sete subsequently joined Gillespie’s band long enough to be part of the trumpeter’s next album, New Wave. Sete then flew to New York City and fronted his own trio at the Park-Sheraton Hotel for four months. When that gig concluded, he returned to San Francisco and began a seven-week solo stint at Sugar Hill. According to Fantasy Records’ then-“official” biography of Sete, written by jazz critic Russ Wilson, that’s where Guaraldi caught up with Sete in July 1963.

 

No mention of Gillespie’s helpful “edict,” although it certainly could have been an encouraging suggestion, at some point.

 

Further along in the same Pony Express article, the anonymous author injects a bit of opinion:

 

Guaraldi rose to national attention after KROY (a Sacramento station) disc jockey Tony Bigg played the “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” track from a Guaraldi recording of jazz impressions of the film Black Orpheus.

 

The recording was surprisingly accepted by the teenagers who make or break popular records.

 

You gotta love that second sentence. “Surprisingly”?

 

The article concludes with the following promise of things to come:

 

Recently, Guaraldi composed music for a Mass at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and he will soon complete another composition, “San Francisco Suite.”

 

Alas, we know that didn’t happen.

 

Photo courtesy of Peggy Tillman

The quartet’s performance was reviewed in The Pony Express — again anonymously — on October 21. The writer noted that the set list included “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” two “Jazz Impressions of Charlie Brown,” a “delightful” rendition of the Jimmie Rodgers tune “The World I Used to Know,” and a “swingy waltz” called “Skating.”

That’s the only reference I’ve found, to “The World I Used to Know”; Guaraldi never recorded it on an album. But the presence of “Skating” is more of an eye-opener, as it likely means that sparkling jazz waltz was a regular part of the entire tour’s set list … a couple of months before it debuted for the world in A Charlie Brown Christmas.

 

One of the tour’s final stops — perhaps the final stop — was at Citrus College, in Glendora, on October 29. The performance was reviewed on November 5 in the Citrus College Clarion, and journalist Frank Cernelli combined that coverage with an interview with Guaraldi.

 

The lengthy article includes these tidbits:

 

[Guaraldi] also plays, but not professionally, the guitar and organ, and is building a harpsichord in his spare time. “I like putting things together,” he declared.

 

……..

 

After finishing a round of 26 California college concerts, [Guaraldi] will tour Oregon. He is also considering the possibility of touring England early next year.

 

……..

 

Summing up his musical philosophy, [Guaraldi] said, “I strive for freedom of musical expression, and clarity of thought.”

 

That final remark is a bit … well … pompous, and seems to have more to do with Zen meditation than performing jazz. But, whatever.

 

Building a harpsichord, eh? Could be true; if so, he may even have used it during local gigs.

 

He may well have toured Oregon in November 1965; I have absolutely no information about his movements that month. (I need to find a comparable Oregon digital newspaper collection!) But he definitely never made it to England in early 1966, or any time thereafter.

And that’s it for now. 

Vinyl madness 2021

Well, they clearly see us coming.

The "vinyl variants" of A Charlie Brown Christmas must be selling quite well each holiday season, because this promotional gimmick has been going strong since 2015. By my count, we've seen slightly more than two dozen, with more to come this year.

I'm curious ... has anybody reading this blog faithfully purchased all of them? If so, let me know; I'd love to acknowledge your devotion.

Anyway...

The fun begins this year in an unexpected manner, with Craft's (believe it or not) pumpkin-shaped orange vinyl edition of its recently issued soundtrack for It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. It's expected to ship September 17. (I'm pleased to see they found a clever way to include the liner notes I wrote for that release.)

Moving on to A Charlie Brown Christmas, Wal-Mart's offering -- a red glitter vinyl disc packaged in silver foil -- is available now:

Barnes & Noble will offer an exclusive limited-edition picture disc, packaged in silver foil, and with an embossed jacket, expected to be available on October 1:

Urban Outfitters is unleashing a clear vinyl disc with red and green splatters, also scheduled for October 1 (Actually, this is merely new packaging; it's the same "exclusive LP" as 2020, but in a foil sleeve instead of last year's lenticular sleeve):

Target has a metallic gold swirl vinyl, along with a new art poster. It's also available now:

And you have to love the peppermint vinyl soon to be available from RSD Essentials, due out October 15:

Newbury Comics also will unveil their variant on October 15, with green swirl vinyl:

Craft will hit us with a "glitter-infused clear vinyl" LP, scheduled for October 1. But I can't help quoting the caveat the label includes, in the description of this one: "Please note that vinyl additives such as glitter may, but should not, affect sound quality." 

Is this what we've come to? "Exclusive" LPs that aren't (necessarily) designed to be played?

Anyway...

In addition to these vinyl variants, numerous retailers also will offer the standard LP — which is to say, plain black vinyl — in a "silver foil" edition with the foil "wrapped" onto the outer sleeve, and the Peanuts characters embossed. This short video gives a better sense of how that will look, than any of the still photos I've found.

And here's a late entry from vinylmeplease.com, in "red and green marble vinyl" ... although -- be advised -- the price point on this one is much higher than the others.

This is all I know about at the moment, but it's entirely possible that one or more other outlets will jump on board, as autumn arrives. If so, I'll add them to this post ... so keep checking back.

Number one no more

For more than half a century, it has been assumed true.

And — of course — we’ve wanted to continue believing it was true.

 

Alas … no.

 

When the Rev. Charles Gompertz contemplated the notion of a Jazz Mass to help celebrate the completion of San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral — the first major Anglican cathedral to be consecrated in the United States — he knew this notion was radical. Indeed — as he told me more than once, during our numerous interviews — to his knowledge, no American church had ever employed jazz in a worship setting. Gompertz was aware of only one earlier near-miss. Geoffrey Beaumont, a London priest, had composed a Jazz Mass in 1956: a work scored for a cantor and a jazz quartet. Beaumont and his composition made the news in 1957, but the vicar’s performances of this work always took placed after his regular services at St. George’s, in Camberwell.

 

During preparation and the lengthy rehearsals that went into Vince Guaraldi’s Grace Cathedral Mass, and thereafter for the rest of his life, Gompertz firmly believed that it was the first Jazz Mass presented during an American church service of any kind. During the extensive research for my Guaraldi biography, back in 2010 and ’11, I found nothing to contradict this belief.

 

Ah, but my good friend Bill Carter — reverend of the First Presbyterian Church in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania — had “inside tipsters” and access to better resources: most crucially, Derick Cordoba’s 2017 doctoral dissertation, Liturgical Jazz: The Lineage of the Subgenre in the Music of Edgar E. Summerlin, presented at the Graduate College of the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign. 

 

Bill, this blog’s readers will recall, officiated a 50th anniversary presentation of Guaraldi’s Mass at his Clarks Summit church on September 6, 2015; the jazz elements were performed by his Presbybop Quartet: Bill (piano), Al Hamme (sax and flute), Tony Marino (bass) and Tyler Dempsey (drums). In addition to the lengthy rehearsals preceding this presentation, Bill also had spent many months transcribing the Mass: something that hadn’t ever been done (and a process made even harder by the fact that Vince never played the Mass’ music the same way twice, as proven by the few recorded excerpts that exist in addition to Fantasy’s At Grace Cathedral album).

Jerry Granelli, drumming legend

Jerry Granelli, Fred Marshall and Vince Guaraldi caught on camera, for Ralph Gleason's
film Anatomy of a Hit, during their lengthy run at The Trident, in the summer of 1963.

“I wanted to be a gunslinger, when I was a kid,” Jerry Granelli admitted, during one of the long chats we shared 13 years ago. “The closest I could come was being a jazz musician. The [stand-up] comics and the jazz musicians hung out together. The jazz musicians loved the comics, and vice versa. We were outlaws; we lived in an underworld, at night.”

Jerry Granelli, the feisty hard-charging drummer who — with bassist Fred Marshall — formed Vince Guaraldi’s third “classic” trio, died Tuesday morning in his Halifax home.

 

As readers of this blog know, he’d been ill for months; indeed, he came very close to dying this past December, just before his 80th birthday. Recovery was slow, but that’s the frustrating part; he seemed to be beating it, and regaining his strength.

 

And then, suddenly, he left us yesterday morning.

 

There’s no shortage of laudatory coverage, and I won’t attempt to duplicate that ground here. The CBC has an excellent piece, as does JAZZ.FM91. Others are easy to find.

 

As I’ve said many times, during the past decade and change, nobody tells better stories than jazz musicians. (Nobody tells dirtier stories, either, but very few of those made it into my Guaraldi biography.) One of the most eye-opening came from Jerry, recalling an incident that took place in Southern California in early April 1963. The Guaraldi Trio was booked for a week at Los Angeles’ It Club; Miles Davis was headlining simultaneously nearby, at Shelly’s Manne Hole.

 

“Most people don’t know this,” Jerry told me, “but Miles Davis loved Vince; he even wanted Vince to come work with him. But Vince refused, saying, ‘Naaah … I already got a band, man.’

 

“Typical Vince. He had no fear of anyone, at that point.

 

“Anyway, Miles would come in every night, after his gig, and just sit there. He loved Vince’s tune, ‘Star Song.’ So Miles would have a drink and say, ‘Play that song, man.’ Every night! And it freaked me out, because it was Miles, man!”

 

All these years later, I still vividly remember the enthusiasm and awe in Jerry’s voice, as he concluded that anecdote.

 

Life changed for Guaraldi after A Charlie Brown Christmas, and — to this day — some snobbish critics continue to diminish Dr. Funk’s place in the jazz pantheon, as a result of that commercial success. I brought this up during a chat with Jerry this past March — our last, as it turned out — and his irritation was evident.

 

“The ‘jazz police’ thought that this happening to Vince — the success of A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the TV specials that followed — was some sort of sell-out. Yet when I’m standing around with some famous jazz musician, many of them, they say, ‘Man, I love that stuff; that made me want to play jazz.’ ”

 

Beginning in December 2013, and continuing each subsequent holiday season, Jerry and his trio toured Canada with annual presentations of his Tales of A Charlie Brown Christmas. The concerts blended the iconic music with his memories of working with Guaraldi, along with brief background on how that first TV special came to be. (He never brought his show to the States, more’s the pity.)

 

“A thousand people show up every night, at a different city in Canada,” Jerry told me. “We were playing somewhere, and after the show, this guy came up — obviously a biker, all decked out in leather — and he said, ‘Aw, that was great, man; that was fuckin’ great. I gotta go home and get my dad, because he fuckin’ loves this.’ And then, right after him, up comes a little kid from out west, who still writes to me.”

I mentioned that, in my own experience, I’ve encountered many, many people who remember where they were, how old they were, who they were with, when they saw A Charlie Brown Christmas the first time.

 

“Oh, I know they do,” Jerry agreed, “because they tell me about it.

 

“It’s like that show — that music — is alive; it changed a lot of things for a lot of people.”

 

And you changed a lot of things for a lot of us, Jerry.

The drum section in Heaven’s really big jazz band just got a lot stronger. 

Archival gold

Hang onto your hats; this one is huge.

The first tantalizing seed was planted at some point in 2009, during the research phase of my Guaraldi bio (a few years before I began crafting the actual text). One of San Francisco Chronicle music critic Ralph Gleason’s columns — on July 16, 1964 — briefly mentioned that Guaraldi and Bola Sete soon would record some short programs, known as “fills,” for National Educational Television (NET) member stations. That’s all I would know for more than a decade, despite extensive investigation.

 

In early 2011, I began what quickly became a warm and friendly email and phone correspondence with a fellow Guaraldi fan named Doug, who worked (still works) on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. His proximity to the Library of Congress — and his willingness to lend his investigative talents — proved quite helpful, on numerous occasions. In mid-June, I mentioned the NET fills, wondering whether there might be any reference to them in the Library of Congress (LoC), and/or whether any leads might point to former NET (now PBS) stations possessing additional information … or, better yet, copies of old tapes. During the next several years — to my grateful surprise, when he later detailed this effort — he exchanged more than 180 emails (!) with “various and sundry folks” while trying to confirm existence and contents. A few individuals provided encouragement and direction, although — alas — every potential lead went nowhere.

 

My Guaraldi bio was published in April 2012. The filmography (Appendix C) includes a listing for the NET fills, along with a frustrating final sentence noting that “no tapes have been found thus far.”

 

And that’s where the matter remained, for nearly a decade. I re-checked the LoC databases every year or so, to no avail.

 

Then, in early May 2020, I stumbled upon the LoC’s recently added NET Microfiche Special Collection … and the picture rapidly expanded. I learned that the Guaraldi/Sete fills had been made specifically to accompany an imported 13-episode Granada-TV anthology series titled Stories of Guy de Maupassant; I even was able to determine which episodes were attached to Guaraldi and/or Sete performances. (The full story of that discovery is detailed in this earlier blog post.)

FYI: Behind-the-scenes change

Greeting, loyal readers!  

If you receive updates from Impressions of Vince by email, this is a heads-up to let you know that the blog is changing to a new email delivery service.  No action is required on your part.  You will be moved automatically to the new service, and will continue to receive email updates as usual.  The blog emails will look slightly different, and you'll notice that the name of the service at the bottom of the email has changed, but otherwise it should be business as usual; this is just an FYI.

Google, which owns Feedburner — the former service — will discontinue support for sending email blog updates, as of July.

The new service is called Feedblitz.

If you notice any problems or have any questions, let us know.  But we've run some tests and expect everything to switch over smoothly.

If you keep up with the blog in some other way, then nothing at all is changing for you.  (But if you'd like to subscribe to email updates, look for the little subscription form on the upper right-hand side of this blog's webpage.)

Thanks for continuing to read Impressions of Vince!

More bits and bobs

My ongoing dive into newspapers.com continues to reveal all sorts of informational nuggets. Most wind up in my Guaraldi Timeline, which is expanding at an exponential rate, but others are worthy of a few paragraphs here.

Enjoy!

********

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ralph J. Gleason interviewed Guaraldi while the pianist still was a member of Cal Tjader's Quintet, for a feature story that appeared November 30, 1958. Vince's comments included these revealing passages:

"I first heard boogie woogie on Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall [a radio variety program that aired from 1933 to 1949]. Some guy played it and explained the different basses. I learned my first tune in G-flat, played on the black keys. It's an easy way to learn to play the piano. At first I just played in the house, though.

"Boogie woogie has helped me a lot, for a blues taste. Those cats had a good time; I still have their albums, and I still play them. You can adapt a lot of what they do to Latin music, for instance."

And, when asked to name his favorite musician, Guaraldi replied, "Zoot Sims is my favorite saxophone player. He can make me cry. He's a guy that it's in his soul to play. It's beautiful. It's not out-of-the-book-let's-go-to-school. He's a human being."

********

The national tour with Dick Gregory and vocalist Margie McCoy, in late 1963, hit quite a few colleges and universities. One such stop, on October 31, was at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, in California. In anticipation of that visit, a journalist for the campus newspaper — the El Mustang — ran a feature article that included this intriguing information about Guaraldi, along with a few quotes:

The pianist is one of the few recording artists to double as both recording director and producer.

"I plan to record new talent as well as established artists," Guaraldi says, "and will make a special attempt to discover the unknown artist of today."

The director-composer calls a great deal of this country's music put out under the label of bossa nova "sheer nonsense."

I have to say "Do tell!" to the first comment. The sole A&R (Artists & Repertoire) credit Guaraldi possesses, to my knowledge, is for Bola Sete's 1965 Fantasy album, The Incomparable Bola Sete. And Guaraldi can hardly claim to have "discovered" Sete.

The second comment generates a raised eyebrow and thoughts of sour grapes...

********

When the Gregory/Guaraldi/McCoy show was reviewed by El Mustang's Lynne Prindle a few days later, on November 5, she gave a droll opening to the paragraph devoted to the trio:

Vince Guaraldi's Trio, headed by a little man covered with a handle bar mustache, banged out its impressions of such songs as "Limehouse Blues," "Fly Me to the Moon" and their interpretation of Henry Mancini's "Mr. Lucky." Highlight of the trio set was the song Guaraldi wrote and recorded, "Cast Your Fate to the Wind."

Think we should give Prindle credit for intentionally including the word impressions?

********

The Gregory/Guaraldi/McCoy tour subsequently stopped at the University of California, Davis, on November 3. In the review that ran November 5 in the campus newspaper, the California Aggie, the unnamed critic concluded the paragraph about Guaraldi thusly:

The trio finished up with their popular "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" and the Fats Waller tune, "Litter Bug Waltz."

(Oopsie!)

********

Richard Haddock's terrific interview with Guaraldi, in the San Francisco Examiner on March 29, 1964, includes these highly informative quotes:

"I listen to everybody," Vince replies, to the usual question about musical influences. "There were really only three main departure points in jazz piano: James P. Johnson, Earl Hines and Bud Powell. They're all great, but Powell had the biggest influence on me.

"I also like the awkward grace of Thelonious Monk very much. And then there are Art Tatum and Duke Ellington: each in a class by himself, over and above the rest. I hear Chopin in Tatum, and the classical composer in Duke."

********

Finally, Herb Caen's April 17, 1964, column — which appeared in numerous San Francisco Bay Area newspapers — had this to say about an upcoming documentary about Charles M. Schulz:

Producer Lee Mendelson's TV special about Charles Schulz, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, will have Vince Guaraldi playing the piano for Schroeder, and Cal Tjader beating the vibes as Snoopy."

Well, we know that turned out to be half correct...!