Peanuts (Related Recordings), Vince Guaraldi - Charlie Brown Christmas (Dig)
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Free Music Notes for Charlie Brown Christmas (Dig)
Free Music Review: Another review, 3 years on.
Hit: 4 Stars
As an audiophile and recording engineer, I was excited by the prospect of this remaster. I was especially amused by people's VERY strong reactions to it here on Amazon. Pretty strong stuff!
Maybe deservedly so. It does sound different than the original release. The piano for instance, contrary to a few baffling reviews here, is MUCH fuller sounding now than in the original release. I think people calling it "tinny" aren't actually comparing it to the original, slightly thinner sound of the piano on the '88 release.
RE: Linus and Lucy... the choice to include this version is a little difficult to understand, as the bass is noticeably out of tune with the piano! It's cool as a novelty/different take, but why leave off the one we're all used to? Like many other reviewers, I would have preferred this as a bonus cut.
RE: "clams" and other "mistakes"... I have a feeling that most of these can be attributed to poor documentations as to what was used for the original master. Most of the piano takes here are the ones used on the original release, but there are moments of "what's this?" I suspect that this is due to the current engineers not having notes about which 2 bars of this or that were used as edits/minor piece replacements. They don't sound like entirely different takes to my ears.
It would also seem that the intention was to leave the endings of songs whole instead of fading them out. As a novelty, this almost works, but there is obviously a reason that, say, "Skating" has a fade out on the original release: it gets sloppy!
So yes, strange editing choices were made. As a fan of the original, I would have liked liner notes that explained the choices, which takes were used and why. The inexplicable use of obviously different material seems to have jarred all of us who knew the old disc inside and out.
As a Christmas album, though, it holds up. The sound is full and lovely, the songs are fantastic, the playing wonderful. I don't object to the remix, I think it retains and maybe enhances the sense of presence and space. And I LOVE the fuller piano.
Free Music Review: A Wonderful, Happy Accident
Hit: 4 Stars
Totally apart from the TV special, Vince Guaraldi's album `A Charlie Brown Christmas' has become a classic in its own right. This is all the more amazing when you consider that the whole thing was initially a mash-up anyway.
- `Fur Elise', `Skating' and `Christmastime is Here' (with words by show producer Lee Mendelson) were written or performed by Guaraldi specifically for the show
- `Hark the Herald Angels Sing' was sung by a Sunday school class from a church near the studio, not the kids who individually voiced Charlie Brown & co.
- `Linus and Lucy' had been released two years earlier as part of the LP `Jazz Impressions of a Boy Named Charlie Brown' (written for a special on Charles Schulz that never did get aired)
- The rest of the songs were originally recorded for a Christmas jazz album Guaraldi was working on when he got the call to score the show - of these, only `O Tannenbaum' was actually used
Oddly enough, one piece of music written for the show (the part where Snoopy is decorating his doghouse) has never been part of the various releases of the `Charlie Brown Christmas' album, but you can find it in the album `Charlie Brown Holiday Hits' under the title "Surfin' Snoopy." I don't know that I'll ever make sense of that one. But this is what I mean by the independent success of the album from the show: so what if that piece isn't included, but "What Child Is This" and "Christmas Is Coming" are? The latter pieces are part of the album we've come to know and treasure, and that spirit seems to permeate any revisiting of the album that Fantasy undertakes. It may or may not be fair, but there it is. And what the heck - it's a beautiful album just the way it is.
Free Music Review: Linus and Lucy is an alternate take
Hit: 4 Stars
This album is of course a classic by now. The best Christmas jazz music I've heard, and the remixes are nice. There are 4 bonus tracks on this CD advertised as "alternate takes", and they certainly are. I think they show how the timeless originals of these 4 cuts were heavily improvised, providing a glimpse of the playfulness and whimsy in Guaraldi's playing. What is not advertised is the fact that the centerpiece of the album, "Linus and Lucy", is in fact an "alternate" take as well (from both the previous issue and the show itself). This is not noted anywhere on the CD. Is it possible the mixers/producers grabbed the wrong take? Oh well, this one is inferior but still valuable. If you have the previous issue of this CD, compare them and see for yourself. It's neat to see what Guaraldi came up with.Free Music Review: At Last: A Great-Sounding Charlie Brown Christmas!
Hit: 4 Stars
Two or three years ago I got blasted for giving this album a poor review for its primitive sound quality. That no longer matters since this classic album has finally been remixed and remastered and now sounds wonderful! Except for the children's voices on a couple of songs (which still lack presence), you'd never know this album was recorded 41 years ago.
Why 4 stars instead of 5? The song "My Little Drum" still gets on my nerves (and the children's drum effects still sound as muffled as ever), and I'm not a fan of bonus material that simply reprises previous tracks--but I know that's just a matter of taste. I'm sure most people will enjoy all of it.
Bottom Line: Throw out your old copy and get a new one. You'll be amazed at the difference!
Free Music Review: Christmas Time is Here!
Hit: 4 Stars
Most people enjoy a wistful little look back at their childhood Christmas mornings every once in a while. Vince Guaraldi does the trick nicely. His beguiling, smart structures opened up the wide wide world of jazz to many people in 1965 when he scored the Peanut's Christmas special. He also managed to do it with a vision that induced a certain magnetism to both his work and the work of Charles Schultz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip. Listening to Charlie Brown's Christmas today, one is immediately transported back to that time in your life when that one night of the year that no matter how hard you tried to will it to...just wouldn't turn into morning quickly enough. After all, Christmas just isn't Christmas without `Linus and Lucy'.