Christmas Jazz
There is nothing quite like Christmas music. You might think that Christmas music and jazz are just mutually exclusive. Well, you would be wrong.
Back when I worked at the college radio station that played jazz, when Christmas time came around, there was a sudden proliferation of jazz CDs and records for us to play. For a time it was even required for us to play one Christmas tune an hour. While almost all of the jazz vocalists had released Christmas albums, for those of us who enjoyed instrumentals, it was slim pickins. Except for one guy that you may not have heard of.
Vincent Guaraldi.
Who the heck is Vincent Guaraldi? Well, the fact is, you probably hear his music every year. You just may not have realized that Vincent’s music was considered jazz.
You see, Mr. Guaraldi is the gentleman chosen by Charles Schulz to provide the music for the animated Peanuts specials. The most famous one? Yes, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Have you ever seen that one? Of course you have. You know the song with the singing “Christmas Time is Here?” Yeah, that was Vincent. You know the famous piano piece officially known as “Linus and Lucy” that is associated instantly with Peanuts? Yeah, that was Vincent too.
Of course, he also released numerous albums and won Grammy awards for his other compositions and releases. Still, he will probably always be known for his compositions for the Peanuts cartoons and you probably hear his music most-often during the Christmas season.
So, see, you can have a very cool Christmas Jazz experience. You just need to know where to look.
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One of my earliest memories of jazz is the Charlie Brown Christmas special. It was such a treat to stay up and watch that (you could only see it once a year at that point!) – and the music was just so hip! I didn’t quite know what to make of it at that point, but it really caught me.
The Charlie Brown Christmas album is quite possibly the best Christmas album ever, but don’t end your Guaraldi listening there. He was a swinging pianist with a serious artistic voice. Take the time to checke out his albums as a leader (I mean the non-Peanuts stuff!). One of my favorite Cal Tjader albums features Guaraldi on piano – the classic recording Cal Tjader’s Latin Concert. Really worth a listen.