"A Charlie Brown Christmas"
My 3-year-old daughter and I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas last night (then stuck around for the lame "new" Peanuts special, in which Charlie Brown sounded like a chain-smoking drag queen). Halfway thru the original, I realized my kid has the exact same profile as Lucy Van Pelt. It's cute now, but could 'cause real problems later in life.
Anyway, one of the joys of watching with Kid Lulu was her reaction to Vince Guaraldi's music -- she bopped her head the whole time. I was pretty excited for her. Last week, I wrote about the remastered, repackaged Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack just released by Fantasy. My review is rather earnest, but nevertheless, Guaraldi's masterwork is essential buying.
Vince Guaraldi, A Charlie Brown Christmas (Fantasy) An absolute must-have, this deluxe edition of Guaraldi's 1965 cool-jazz masterpiece has been remixed, remastered and reinforced with four bonus tracks. It remains an essential catalyst for any TV-raised tyke (or tyke at heart living in balmy FLA) trying to get into the spirit of the season. Guaraldi's puckish piano noodlings have never sounded so crisp and clean, especially the iconic Linus and Lucy and that propulsive hepcat-rhythm breakdown. Christmas Time Is Here (both a vocal and an instrumental track are included) manages to capture the sound and purity of gently falling snow without being sappy. Now let's all do the Snoopy dance. Grade: A
Sean Daly is the pop music critic for the St. Petersburg Times. His CD collection -- from Journey to Dylan, Prince to U2, Public Enemy to Stan Getz -- is much bigger and better than yours.
My three year-old daughter and I were also going to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" before she handed me a piece of poop taken from her Pull-Up. UUUUUGGGGGHHHH!!!! I TiVoed it instead. Actually, Daly, she really enjoyed the Thanksgiving special and bopped her head at the music as well.
Posted by: Mr. Hanky | November 29, 2006 at 03:06 PM
There's new christmas jazz release from the west coast's Imaginary Trio. You can hear a couple tracks here:
http://www.myspace.com/imaginarytrio
Posted by: jp | December 01, 2006 at 11:19 AM
Greatest Christmas album ever.
Posted by: Bassnote | December 01, 2006 at 03:21 PM
This CD goes into my car around Thanksgiving and doesn't come out again until mid-January. It takes me back to childhood from the first few notes.
Posted by: Producer Dave | December 01, 2006 at 10:59 PM