The Smiley Smile Message Board

Apparently he's much more of an American sensation because you guys get the Charlie Brown specials, unlike us Brits. But there's been no discussion here! I've been listening to the music, and by god is it fantastic. Especially 'The Charlie Brown Suite', which is a recording of a concert with a big orchestra playing these wonderful tunes. They are simply the bomb. Look em up on Spotify, if you can.

http://open.spotify.com/album/2pywhdNwwk9WssPgh302KH is 'The Charlie Brown Suite'

In the USA Vince Guaraldi is highly revered mainly based on his Charlie Brown specials. He was one of the best and most expressive pianists in jazz, with one of the most recognizable tones and styles. If we're talking jazz pianists he's right up there with Dave Brubeck and Bill Evans.

I've never heard much discussion of him with the jazz heads i know. But then the jazz heads I know are pretty snobby (aren't they all?), and maybe the Peanuts association turns them off.... His piano playing is so melodically rich! How can't you get with that!

Are any of his non-Snoopy records on a par with these?

Most "serious" jazz people I know--and jazz theory and composition was my major in college, so I knew a lot of them--weren't into him, just as they weren't into the aforementioned Brubeck. It's actually almost analogous to a lot of rock fans historically not taking the Beach Boys seriously: frankly, Guaraldi (and plenty of others) were just seen as too white. Bill Evans was one of the guys to usually (but not always) get a free pass because of his association with Miles, but a lot of other white jazz musicians are seriously underrated, not taken as "real" jazz musicians. In celebrating the contributions of our great black musical culture, we sometimes end up doing the same unfortunate stereotyping and excluding we had done to black musicians in other musics. In my book, jazz is a "big tent" style of music, just like rock is. There's room for Guaraldi right beside a more bluesy pianist like Wynton Kelly, just as there is room for Megadeth right beside Prince. For that matter, there's room for Guaraldi right beside Prince, too...

And the thing is, it isn't like the Charlie Brown stuff is poor. Alot of it is really good. I love Vince.

Absolutely not. It is great.

It's brilliant stuff! A few of his early sets with Bola Sete are also perfect sit-in-garden-and-quaff-beer music, a genre which i intend to explore so long as the British Weather allows  ;D

My jazz heads I'm acquainted with are into modern noise stuff which comes from longstanding worship of 60's/70's Miles or Coltrane. They definitely do that 'exclusion', for want of a better word. They also get with Motown but not other forms of the same highly melodic 60's pop that i think is obviously of a piece, for example - They love Stevie but don't seem interested in McCartney or Bacharach or whatever - which I find odd. But there's no accounting for taste. McCartney or Bacharach never had Jamie Jamerson, so...

The big tent thing is absolutely right, but jazz musicians are freakin' snobs. The other night I heard someone (a jazz guitar player, no less) use the words 'folk music' as a derogratory term! I don't understand some people.... Like, i wanted to throw Bert Jansch records at him.

Funny, especially in that for the bulk of its history, jazz was folk music. Not the kind most of us immediately associate with the term, but certainly in terms of its function or lineage: music of the common person, taught and learned outside of a formal educational system, carrying on and expanding traditions and specific tunes across generations. That's folk music.

I haven't actively sought out his non xmas music.  But a couple of years ago NPR played an extended live jam of something I'd never heard.  A somewhat poor live recording but as soon as I dialed in the station I immediately recognized it as VG.   A really nice piece that I wouldn't mind owning.