Song:O Tannenbaum
Album:A Charlie Brown Christmas
With Christmas approaching, I thought it would be a good time to talk about one of the most popular Christmas albums ever. And it's a jazz album too. This album got a lot of young people interested in jazz. Pianist Vince Guaraldi was a big part of the West Coast jazz scene. He was born July 17, 1928 in San Francisco. He joined vibraphonist Cal Tjader's band in 1954 and was a big part of that band's success. He left to go solo after making a big splash in Tjader's big band at the 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival, he went solo. His association with Tjader got him a record deal at Fantasy Records and he had already recorded some solo albums. But Guaraldi's 1962 album Jazz Impressions Of Black Orpheus was his big breakthrough. Fantasy released Samba De Orpheus as a single but the B side Cast Your Fate To The Wind caught on with DJs and won a Best Original Jazz Composition Grammy. Meanwhile, producer Lee Mendelson had convinced Charles Schulz to let him produce an animated Peanuts special. Mendelson heard Cast Your Fate To The Wind on the radio and asked veteran jazz writer Ralph J. Gleason about Guaraldi. The rest is history. The scores for the Peanuts shows became some of the best selling jazz albums ever and several jazz musicians, including pianist David Benoit, have credited A Charlie Brown Christmas for their interest in jazz. Concord Jazz released an expanded edition of A Charlie Brown Christmas in 2006. Vince Guaraldi continued to compose music for the Peanuts shows until his death of a heart attack on Feb. 6, 1976 at age 47. Here's a video for O Tannenbaum by The Vince Guaraldi Trio created by DJ Sykes.
Vince Guaraldi Trio - O Tannenbaum
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