On The Record:
VINCE GUARALDI’S A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS

November 21, 2023 | by Rusty Aceves

Bay Area pianist Adam Shulman's concerts devoted to the timeless Vince Guaraldi compositions from the soundtrack of A Charlie Brown Christmas have become a highly anticipated holiday tradition at SFJAZZ. Before Shulman and his trio return on 12/16, we take a look back at the soundtrack recording:

Released in December 1965, Bay Area pianist and composer Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack to Charles Schulz's iconic Peanuts special A Charlie Brown Christmas is among the most beloved holiday albums of all time, now certified Quintuple Plantinum with sales of over five million copies, making it the second best-selling jazz album in history after Miles Davis' iconic 1959 release Kind of Blue. The session was voted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2007 and was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry’s list of “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important” American recordings.

Recorded over two sessions at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley — one taking place in October of 1964 with longtime Guaraldi trio mates Monty Budwig on bass and Colin Bailey on drums, and in September and October of 1965 with bassist Fred Marshall and drummer Jerry Granelli — the album features a childrens chorus recruited from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in San Rafael, who had participated in the recording of Guaraldi's "jazz mass" at Grace Cathedral in May of 1965. A Charlie Brown Christmas includes the definitive version of the Peanuts theme song “Linus and Lucy,” a pair of originals now considered Christmas standards in “Christmas Time Is Here” and “Skating,” as well as new arrangements of classic holiday songs “O Tannenbaum” and “What Child is This.”

In his liner notes for the 1988 Fantasy Records reissue, eminent San Francisco jazz critic, author, and Rolling Stone founding editor Ralph J. Gleason wrote:

“The hardest task an artist faces is not just to achieve self-expression, that almost comes by definition even if it’s difficult to hone that self-expression into something good enough to be art.

 It is another kind of thing altogether (and it strikes me as more difficult) to look at, hear, feel and experience somebody else’s artistic expression and then make something of your own which shows empathy, which relates to the other but which still has your own individual stamp. 

This is what, it seems to me, Vince Guaraldi achieved with his scores for Charlie Brown. He took his inspirations from the creations of Charles Schulz and made music that reflects that inspiration, is empathetic with the image and is still solidly and unmistakably Vince Guaraldi.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Los Angeles Times writer Chris Barton:

“Guaraldi showed how a piano, bass and drums can capture a feeling and character in living color, particularly if those feelings are complex, conflicted or even simply too beautiful for words. It's the kind of realization that, even unconsciously, opens the door for later discoveries in Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Robert Glasper and everything beyond, to say nothing of all the other sounds and ensembles waiting to be heard with jazz at its pulse.”

In 2022, Craft Recordings released expanded deluxe editions of the album on LP, CD, and download formats, featuring bonus tracks and alternate takes.

Adam Shulman and his trio perform Vince Guaraldi's music from A Charlie Brown Christmas on 12/16. Tickets available here. 

Originally posted on December 2, 2019, revised in November 2023.