Good Grief!- only 8 sleeps till Christmas

Driving home last weekend after playing piano at the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular I had the car radio tuned to the CBC. Broadcasting was a program called Inside the Music hosted by Patti Schmidt. Featured was a documentary entitled Good Grief It’s Serendipity, Vince Guaraldi.

Although it would be hard to fathom, there is the possibility that a reader or two of this blog may have never heard of, or viewed a 45-year old TV show called A Charlie Brown Christmas. The show, which airs annually at this time of year, is one of those traditional mileposts that confirms that Christmas has arrived. However, for me it’s not the animated cartoon itself that represents the film’s focal point but the TV show’s jazz based soundtrack.

Fifty years ago an unknown San Francisco pianist named Vince Guaraldi was struggling to make it in the jazz world. Performing around the Bay Area with a trio, Guaraldi (who always described himself as "a reformed boogie-woogie piano player") continually dreamed of writing tunes that would have lasting value as defined in the music business as becoming “a standard.” After two years on the road with the Woody Herman Band in the early 1960’s, Guaraldi finally scored a huge hit on the pop charts with a tune called Cast Your Fate to the Wind. He had included the tune on an album made with his trio, based on the award winning film Black Orpheus.  Winning a Grammy for the tune led to Guaraldi being asked to write the music for a TV pilot based on the comic strip Peanuts.

However, with an irony that seems appropriate for a show about Charlie Brown, the producers were never able to sell the pilot show to a TV network and to this day the original production has never aired. Fortunately for the producers, some underground showbiz hype surrounding the venture led to the Coca-Cola company becoming intrigued with the notion of a Peanuts Christmas TV special.  The rest as they say is history. When A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted in December 1965, Guaraldi joined a rarified guild of jazz musicians - those enjoying a steady paycheck with royalties to boot. Time magazine also did an article about the show, giving jazz and Guaradi’s trio some important exposure against the Tsunami of Rock & Roll.

The CBC’s Inside the Music show last Sunday had as a guest the Halifax-based musician Jerry Granelli who was the drummer on A Charlie Brown Christmas TV special back in 1965. His insights into the making of the special and stories about the jazz musicians involved were so entertaining I re-listened to the show by Podcast the following day and downloaded the original Vince Guaraldi recording of the soundtrack to my computer. I could have dug through dozens of cardboard boxes containing my vast vinyl record collection for the original 12-inch LP. However, by the time I found it I reasoned Christmas would have been long over.

Last Saturday at 6am I drove to Port Alberni to help our son Cory set up the stage microphone stands and cables for a 10am Timbre! dress rehearsal at ADSS. The rehearsal was my only chance to hear the choir sing through this year’s offering of Christmas music as their concert on Sunday conflicted with my two-week gig with the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular. I thought the selected material stunning and the choir in top form. The accompanying pianist, UBC Piano Department Head Dr. Terrence Dawson, did a supurb job, having learned the entire program in one week when the original contracted pianist unexpectedly had to cancel. Giving the music director (my wife Pat) a quick kiss at 12:30 pm, I scurried back over “the hump” to play a matinee performance of the Yellowpoint show. I have no doubt that those blog readers attending Timbre!’s Sunday performance enjoyed the Christmas program as much as I enjoyed the dress rehearsal. If you did, send me an email.

Monday was a day off from the Yellowpoint show. As it happened the Toronto Chamber Jazz Septet was playing the Port Theatre in Nanaimo with an evening concert entitled a Jazzy Nutcracker. Six of Canada’s finest jazz musicians are members of the seasonally assembled touring ensemble – reedmen PJ Perry (flute/soprano sax), Campbell Ryga  (sax/alto flute), Phil Dwyer (tenor sax/clarinet), Perry White (baritone sax/bass clarinet) with a stellar rhythm consisting of Terry Clarke (drums) and Neil Swainson (bass). American pianist Bill Mays who assembles similar groups in the States leads the septet and also writes the arrangements.

Photo: American pianist Bill Mays leads the Toronto Chamber Jazz Septet.

From Louis Armstrong to Count Basie, from Oscar Peterson to Bill Evans, just about any jazzman of any consequence has produced an album of Christmas music at some point in their career. Many interpretations I adore, some I abhor. The Toronto group’s Christmas offering Monday night fell into positive territory. The concert was a tasteful blend of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Nutcracker Suite), Claude Debussy (Clair De Lune), Richard Rodgers (My Favorite Things), Mel Torme (what else! - The Christmas Song) and perhaps a bit of a stretch, a selection by the eccentric pianist Thelonious Monk called Stuffy Turkey. The evening was definitely one would categorize as light jazz. However, the brilliant improvised soloing by these gifted players never let the program sink into the morass marketed to the masses these days as “smooth jazz”. There was something for the jazz aficionado and the uninitiated jazz listener alike.

Tuesday and Wednesday were road days for the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular with performances at the Old Church Theatre in Courtenay. Tuesday afternoon was spent re-blocking the show for a narrower stage. Last week an E5 key broke on my digital piano and I’ve had to play all the shows to date on a music store loaner. Qualicum-based musical instrument repairman extraordinaire Claudio Fantinato immediately ordered a new key for me. Unfortunately the shipping department at Yamaha Canada in Toronto failed to send the part by overnight courier as requested. The piano key finally showed up on Wednesday. Claudio had the key installed just in time for me to switch pianos for the 7:00 pm performance in Courtenay. What a relief getting back to my own keyboard and not having to readjust my arm weight and touch on almost every chord. Tonight felt like I was driving a Ferrari rather than a Tata Nano.

Thursday evening the Yellowpoint show was back at the Cedar venue to begin its final run of seven shows. Sorry folks – if you snooze you lose. All seven shows are completely sold out.

Need a musical instrument repaired? Check out Claudio Fantinato’s website at www.highnotemusicalservices.com

Past postings of my blog can be accessed on the internet at http://barrysblog7.blogspot.com