Great piece this past weekend on Weekend Edition Saturday about Vince Guaraldi, and how he got the "Charlie Brown gig":...filmmaker Lee Mendelson was looking to make a documentary about Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz. One day, Mendelson was traveling across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and heard Guaraldi's minor hit "Cast Your Fate To The Wind."
On what some consider to be Guaraldi's best jazz recording, Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus, "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" earned the composer/musician a Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition in 1963. Another thing I learned from the NPR program is Guaraldi was nicknamed "Dr. Funk" (haha):
The Charlie Brown CD off of iTunes is a must have holiday accessory. Sounds like musical Novocain.
ReplyDeleteChris--you ever read Infinite Jest? David Foster Wallace...a great book IMHO. jemison
Jemison - if that Charlie Brown iTunes bundle is the soundtrack to the '65 TV show, it is fantastic. I listen to it every year about this time. "Skating" is my fave - definitely audio Novocain.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the book suggestion. I'm looking for something new to read, so I'll definitely check it out. I just Wiki-ed him, and I see he committed suicide a year ago. Bummer.
He did. It's a great loss. His writing is microscopic in its detail. I think you'll enjoy IJ--it's like no other book I've ever read. jemison
ReplyDeleteI checked it out of the Nac library last week and just started it. 900+ pages?? Good Lord, man! It'll test my fortitude, that's for sure.
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