Let's be honest, Christmas music is pretty polarizing, especially when you're bombarded with it in every store and commercial from October onwards. This goes doubly so for any of us who have actually worked in holiday retail; I know I still have nightmares about “Little Drummer Boy” from time to time. However, there is one album that will make me dance with Christmas cheer when I hear it, no matter where I am, and that is the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmasbecause the Vince Guaraldi Trio is the real reason for the season.
THE Peanut The Christmas special first aired on CBS in 1965 and stands on its own merits as a Christmas special, but it's the music that brings it to life and has made it a holiday mainstay that has endured through nearly sixty years of annual rebroadcast. Vince Guaraldi and his band took something that was good and turned it into something amazing, and That's why it's the only Christmas album I own or will voluntarily put out. You can have the rest of the best Christmas musicals for yourselves.
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“Jingle Bells”? No. “Rudolfo”? No. That Mariah Carey song that I don't even dare name, so it won't stick in my head for the rest of the year? Absolutely not. There and a version of “The Little Drummer Boy”, but it has a phenomenal beat and is instrumental. In truth, most of the album is instrumentalin addition to the vocal arrangements of “Christmas Time Is Here” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, which appear very prominently in the special, as the cast sings them.
However, even if a real children's choir isn't to your taste, there's no denying that the album starts strong (“O Tannenbaum,” rocking hard enough to make the Rat Pack swoon) and keeps going (“What Child Is This,” “Linus and Lucy,” “Skating” and all the rest). Guaraldi already an experienced bandleader by this point in his career we've brought together a compact and skilled trio that makes truly beautiful jazz.
We don't get enough jazz in our music diets the rest of the year
Jazz is the musical equivalent of Brussels sprouts – delicious and great for you, but only when prepared correctly
Unless you count the other Peanut holiday specials for which Vince Guaraldi provided the soundtrack (Halloween, Summer Vacation, Election Day, Thanksgiving, Easter, Valentine's Day, and, strangely enough, Arbor Day), There really are no definitive jazz albums that celebrate holidays. This is disappointing, because jazz is wonderful, and Vince Guaraldi's jazz is doubly wonderful.
Guaraldi was born in 1928 and grew up in the San Francisco neighborhood of North Beach, California, where he learned to appreciate jazz and big band music from his mother's two brothers, who were leaders of jazz bands. After serving in the US Army as a cook from 1946 to 1948, he returned to San Francisco and began playing the piano professionally. His first appearance on a recording was in 1951when he played in a trio with the famous Latin jazz musician Cal Tjader; by 1956, Guaraldi was his own bandleader.
Although it took a while, Guaraldi's 1962 album Jazzy impressions of Black Orpheus did well, but it was the B-side of the first single that really took off. “Cast Your Fate To The Wind” was a hit with radio DJs, and it was this song that caught the attention of TV producer Lee Mendelson. After hearing “Cast Your Fate To The Wind” on the radio in 1963he got Guaraldi to do the soundtrack for a Peanut documentary; when the Coca-Cola Company ordered a Peanut Christmas Special two years later, Guaraldi was there to score the soundtrack.
So this holiday season, leave the bombastic Trans-Siberian Orchestra albums and your tear-stained copy of “The Christmas Shoes” on the shelf, and let Vince Guaraldi be the soundtrack to your Christmas Eve, your Christmas and even your Boxing Day. Trust me, you'll be smiling and dancing like Snoopy in no time.