Thursday, November 30, 2006

A Charlie Brown Christmas - Remastered

For anyone who grew up during (and since) the 60s, the music from the beloved animated TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas resonates with deep sentimental meaning. That swinging soundtrack by the Vince Guaraldi Trio is as much a part of our musical upbringing as the early Beatles, Stones and Dylan albums and has continued to register with successive generations in rebroadcasts every year since its 1965 premiere. Memorable melodies like the cheerful 'Linus And Lucy,' the whimsically swinging 'Skating,' the bittersweet 'Christmastime Is Here' and the groovy boogaloo 'Christmas is Coming' have become ingrained in our collective consciousness.

Like those Beatles, Stones and Dylan records, Guaraldi's jazzy score has endured. Now, 41 years after its initial airing and 30 years after the pianist-composer himself passed away from a heart attack in 1976 at age 47, Fantasy is releasing a new Expanded Edition of this holiday favorite. Remixed in stereo using 24-bit remastering from the original tapes and featuring the original cover art reinstated with the approval of United Media and the Estate of Charles Schultz, A Charlie Brown Christmas includes four previously unissued bonus tracks by the Vince Guaraldi Trio (featuring Fred Marshall on bass and Jerry Granelli on drums).

As Shawn Haney wrote in the All Music Guide to Jazz: "Guaraldi strings together elegant, enticing arrangements that reflect the spirit and mood of Schulz's work and introduce contemporary jazz to youngsters with grace, charm and creativity. (His) penetrating improvisational phrases paint pictures of the first winter snowfall, myriads of glistening trees and powdery white landscapes."

Streaming Audio track: "Linus & Lucy"

Jazz from Amazon.com
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2 comments:

  1. Unknown12/18/06, 12:20 AM

    An intersting album...all the more so because for some as-yet-unexplained reason, Fantasy Records put an alternate version of Linus & Lucy on this CD. How do I know this? Aw, c'mon! We've all been hearing the original version of Linus & Lucy for years now! THIS version barrels out of the starting gate at a noticably faster tempo, it has a differently played improvisation break, and sports different percussion at the end. (I'm not the only one to notice this, by the way. Check out Amazon's listing of this album.) I'm fascinated, but perplexed. Did Fantasy make a mistake? Did they get the numbers of the master tapes mixed up? Why and HOW could anyone flub up a remastering of the original relased recording of what is arguably a major jazz standard? A polite email inquiry to Fantasy Records has yet to generate a reply. Anyone with any legit info to offer, we'd surely love to hear it!

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  2. Unknown12/18/06, 12:37 AM

    Oh. OK. Guess I should've gone back to Amazon before posting :-)

    Read Joseph M. Luca's review first, then make up your own mind. Don't know if he's got any insider info, but everything he says seems to ring true. One thing in particular: Fantasy could've explained themselves better. But at least the choice of tracks, so it would seem, was not an error after all.

    One other thing: I agree with Luca, and not his detractors, regarding the mix. It's quite clear, and exciting: you can hear everything. To make your collection complete, however, I'd buy one of the previous CD issues (lots of reviewers talk about the "1988" issue; I got mine at Starbucks three years ago, and it's the standard issue as far as I know), since it's the one everyone knows, and still has great sound. But buy this album, too -- the trio really come to life here.

    Sez me!
    John

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