David Guaraldi, R.I.P.

David Anthony Guaraldi, Vince’s first-born child and only son, passed away on September 24.

He was only 71. Much too young.

 

It’s safe to say, that without David’s help and enthusiasm early on, I likely never would have written his father’s biography. I owe David a lot.

 

How that happened is a somewhat complicated story. 

 

Back in 1990, my wife and I learned about the existence of the Peanuts Collector Club (PCC), an international clan devoted to the work of Charles M. Schulz, and which thrives to this day. We became members later that year, possibly in early 1991. At the time — in those prehistoric days — club founder/president Andrea Podley produced four to six club newsletters per year, which were snail-mailed to all members. Having worked as a journalist since 1974, I immediately offered to contribute an occasional article.

 

I already was an avid Guaraldi fan, and had collected many (but not yet all) of the albums that featured him as leader or sideman. It therefore was logical to make one of my first newsletter contributions an article about him.

 

Easier said than done.

 

To my great surprise, there wasn’t much “out there” about Vince. Library research at the time was limited to microfilmed newspaper archives and bound volumes of magazines, the contents of which were tabulated in bulky annual reference guides. Searching under Guaraldi’s name was easy ... but his entries were rare, and usually unhelpful.

 

I finally pieced together an article published in the PCC newsletter’s summer 1993 issue. The content drew mostly from San Francisco Chronicle music columnist Ralph’s Gleason’s lengthy liner notes on many Guaraldi albums; Chronicle columnist John L. Wasserman’s warm tribute article, published March 15, 1976; and the surprisingly limited mention in Ted Gioia’s 1992 book, West Coast Jazz. 

 

Bits & Bobs

Bassist Ron McClure just released a memoir, appropriately titled Bass in Time.

McClure briefly was a member of Guaraldi's trio, from late 1973 through early 1974. 

By the time he came into Guaraldi's orbit, the bassist already had enjoyed a busy career on both coasts. McClure toured California in the mid-1960s with Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Cobb and Wynton Kelly. McClure eventually moved to California in 1969, at which point he joined the jazz quartet The Fourth Way, alongside Eddie Marshall, Mike Nock and Michael White. McClure returned to New York in 1971 and stayed for a year; he then bounced back to California in the summer of ’72. Drummer Mike Clark and McClure had gotten to know each other by this point; when Guaraldi was in need of a bassist, Clark suggested his friend.

During a chat I had with Ron several years ago, he recalled being awed when first introduced to Guaraldi.

"I remember going out to his house; it was beautiful. I had played with Charles Lloyd for four years, and was making less than $10,000 a year. And here Vince was doing the Peanuts gigs, and he had made records, and he was older than I was … and he was famous! Vince looked like God to me; I felt like I was playing with Andre Previn."

My first known timeline citation of Guaraldi, McClure and Clark working together took place during a recording session at San Francisco's Wally Heider Studios, on October 8, 1973, for a future album that never happened. The trio ran through several takes of Charlie Parker's "Billie's Bounce" and one of Vince's longtime favorites, "Autumn Leaves." The second take of the latter eventually wound up on the posthumous 2006 Guaraldi album North Beach, although (shamefully) neither McClure nor Clark was credited. The first take just debuted as a bonus track on Guaraldi's soundtrack to It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown (with proper credits). The takes of "Billie's Bounce" — including an initial five-minute romp that gave McClure plenty of room to stretch — have yet to surface.

McClure also recalled subbing in for at least one night, during the Guaraldi trio's subsequent booking at El Matador, from December 28 to January 5, 1974.

Despite McClure’s desire to work regularly with Guaraldi — the bassist particularly hoped for some of the Peanuts action — the dynamic seemed off. It wasn’t anything tangible; if anything, Guaraldi seemed to fear that McClure, with his East Coast jazz sensibilities, was too good for him.

“He told me, ‘You’ll break my heart and run away with some name band, and I’ll be stuck without a bass player again,’” McClure recalled. “People tend to hire people they feel comfortable with, and feel that they can get. So I understood what he meant.”

At first blush, McClure's book seems quite imposing, at 724 pages (!). But it's actually an easy read, with roughly six dozen short chapters in (more or less) chronological order; each reads like an anecdote, or brief slice of McClure's history. I loved his account of being asked to become Dionne Warwick's bassist, in 1964 — they sat next to each other years earlier, in a theory class at the Hartt College of Music  — and turning her down. The following chapter, citing McClure's first encounter with tempestuous drummer Buddy Rich, took place during a six-week gig at Las Vegas' Thunderbird Hotel lounge, every night from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. (Yikes!) Given that I came of age in the 1970s, I was particularly captivated by how McClure wound up joining Blood, Sweat & Tears in January 1974 (thus proving that Guaraldi's instincts had been accurate!), and staying with that group for a couple of years.

There's much, much more — Ron has led a charmed life! — but I don't want to spoil the fun. And since this is a blog devoted to Guaraldi, I'll conclude with McClure's concluding comments about Vince:

"Most people don’t realize what a good jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi was. He had tremendous chops on the piano, and could swing his ass off like Wynton Kelly, one of his greatest influences. He was a great jazz improviser as well as a very imaginative composer."

The book is available directly from McClure, at rondixmcclure@gmail.com

The price is $20. Message Ron directly, and send payment via Venmo, Zelle or PayPal.

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It's variant season again...

We can look forward to two new Charlie Brown Thanksgiving vinyl variants. The first is a Record Store Day exclusive: a pink jelly bean variant, at left, scheduled for release on October 2, which can be pre-ordered here, or, better yet, buy it from your local brick and mortar music store.

The second is a new picture disc, available from Barnes & Noble, scheduled for release on October 9. It can be pre-ordered here. (Be advised: The Barnes & Noble website also still has listings for the 2024 and 2025 Charlie Brown Thanksgiving picture discs, so don't mistakenly order one of those again!)

And, looking a bit further ahead...

On January 22, 2027, Record Store Day will release another heart-shaped vinyl version of "Selections from Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown." The shape of the vinyl will be identical to the red version released earlier this year, but this new one will be "hot pink." It can be pre-ordered here or, again, purchased from your favorite brick and mortar music store.