Grab your deerstalkers!

The 75th anniversary celebration of Guaraldi's professional career continues with the debut soundtrack release of It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown: the 11th Peanuts TV special, which debuted February 1, 1974.

The show was written by Charles Schulz, produced by Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson, and directed by Phil Roman. 

Guaraldi is joined by Tom Harrell, trumpet; Seward McCain, bass; and Mike Clark and Eliot Zigmund, drums. The combo took its time laying down this score, with six sessions at San Francisco's Wally Heider Studios: December 14 and 16-19, 1973; and January 23, 1974.

The 15 soundtrack cues are accompanied by four bonus tracks from the Mystery recording session, along with two jazz standards recorded around the same time, featuring Ron McClure on bass.

The album was mixed by Terry Carleton at Bones, and Knives Studio, and restored and mastered by Vinson Hudson. Sean and Jason Mendelson produced the album, which includes a four-page insert with art from the special, extensive liner notes by Sean and Jason Mendelson, and an historical essay by my own self.

The special "clear magnifying glass" biovinyl Record Store Day LP will debut on September 18, at your local brick-and-mortar music shop. It will be packaged with a magnifying glass, designed to help solve some of this release's "Easter egg" mysteries. 

CD, digital and additional vinyl information will be released at a later date.

The album can be pre-ordered at this Record Store Day page. (Bear in mind that not all stores get listed; if you don't see your local favorite, give 'em a call.)

TRACK LIST

1. Little Birdie

2. Mystery Theme/Mystery Theme [Reprise]

3. It's A Mystery, Charlie Brown

4. Sassy Sally/It's A Mystery, Charlie Brown [Reprise]

5. Mystery Theme [2nd Reprise]

6. Cops And Robbers

7. It's A Mystery, Charlie Brown [2nd Reprise]

8. Mystery Theme [3rd Reprise]

9. It's A Mystery, Charlie Brown [3rd Reprise]

10. Sally's Blues

11. Mystery Interlude #1

12. Joe Cool

13. It's A Mystery, Charlie Brown [4th Reprise]

14. Mystery Theme [4th Reprise]

15. Mystery Theme [5th Reprise]

BONUS TRACKS

16. It's A Mystery, Charlie Brown [2nd Reprise - Alternative Take]

17. Snoopy Holmes

18. Mystery Theme [Viberslap Mix/Studio Banter]

19. Little Birdie [Alternate Vince Whistle]

20. Cops And Robbers [Rhythm Section Mix]

21. Joe Cool [Just Vince Mix]

22. Autumn Leaves [Take 1]

23. Billie's Bounce [Take 2]

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But wait, there's more!

Target has just announced an exclusive, "tiny vinyl" edition of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which will debut July 17.

Side A features "The Great Pumpkin Waltz," and "Graveyard Theme" is on side B.

Time to once again break out your tiny record players!

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.

 

Seward McCain and Vince Guaraldi at Butterfield's circa 1974-76

When each was asked what it was like, to play on a project that would be viewed on television by millions of folks, Seward’s response was quite philosophical. Unlike playing in front of live crowds, he began, even large ones, “You get no feedback, playing the music for a Charlie Brown special; you just play and leave. It’s still a bit of an unreality to me, the huge number of people that heard this music.”

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.

 

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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! 

Egg-citing news!

Guaraldi’s full score for 1974’s It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown will be available for purchase on on March 21. The album can be pre-ordered on CD or black vinyl at Amazon and the MVD Shop, as well as other online retailers and your favorite brick-and-mortar record store. (As always, it also will be available digitally.)

An "Easter Purple" colored vinyl variant, limited to 2,000 individually numbered BioVinyl copies, is available solely at independent record stores. Check with your local store, to reserve or purchase a copy. Recordstoreday has a list of stores, but the list is incomplete; best to give your preferred store a call, even if it isn't on the list.

As an additional bonus, the folks at Lee Mendelson Film Productions also announced a Record Day exclusive of this album: individually foil-stamped and numbered, on — are you ready for this? — egg-shaped vinyl. To drive folks even crazier, the LPs will come in five different colors ... and they’re “mystery colors.” You won’t know what you’ve got, until you take it home and check it out.

Additional details about the Record Store Day release can be found on the official LMFP press release, and full details about all of the album’s iterations are available on this LMFP master release.

Three sample tracks can be streamed here, and ordering links for all iterations are here.

During an unusually busy half-year that began in October 1973, Guaraldi scored an unprecedented three Peanuts animated TV specials. His music for It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown — last on a list that began with A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and It’s a Mystery, Charlie Brown — was completed during three 1974 sessions at San Francisco’s Wally Heider Studios, on January 30, March 1 and April 9. He was joined by Seward McCain, bass, while Glenn Cronkhite and Eliot Zigmund split the chores on drums.

Guaraldi favored electric keyboards on this score, with varied cues that are as larkish as the on-screen action. The title theme is a fleeting little number, and he sprinkles fragments of “Linus and Lucy” and “Peppermint Patty” throughout the show. A shopping sequence is blessed with the show’s longest cue: “Woodstock’s Dream,” a whimsical melody that offers droll counterpoint as the kids travel up and down escalators, while searching this massive store for eggs.

This album features a particularly special bonus track: a medley of "Woodstock" tunes performed nearly 50 years later by pianist David Benoit, alongside original Guaraldi sidemen Seward McCain (bass) and Mike Clark (drums), recorded at the same San Francisco studio — now called Hyde Street — where the Easter Beagle soundtrack originally was recorded. 

The track listing:

1. Peppermint Patty

2. Easter Theme / Easter Theme (Reprise)

3. Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 3 in C Major, Op. 2 No. 3 - I. Allegro con brio

4. Snoopy and Woodstock

5. Linus and Lucy

6. Woodstock's Dream

7. Snoopy’s Gumballs / Sally and Linus

8. Woodstock's Dream (Reprise)

9. Marcie's Song (Kitchen Music)

10. Linus and Lucy (Reprise)

11. Woodstock’s Pad

12. Woodstock’s Dream (2nd Reprise)

13. Music Box Dance (Minuet in G Major, BWV Anh. 116)

14. Woodstock’s Dream (3rd Reprise)

15. Easter Egg Soup (Kitchen Music 2)

16. Linus and Lucy (2nd Reprise) / Linus and Lucy (3rd Reprise)

17. Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 - II. Allegreto

18. Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 - I. Poco sostenuto - Vivace

19. Salting Eggs / Linus and Lucy (4th Reprise)

20. Bonus Track: Woodstock Medley (Woodstock’s Wake-Up / Little Birdie / Woodstock’s Dream / Thanksgiving Theme / Little Birdie (Reprise))