Peanuts Portraits

Guaraldi, Vince

Concord, 2010, CD
Instrument: Piano

Issue: 16.2

Jazz Ruler Type: Pop+Jazz

Performance: 4

Sound: 3

Score:

O’s Notes: Who can argue with the success of the Peanuts comic strip? Charles Schultz created Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus and the gang in 1950. By the mid 1960s, Lee Mendelson was packaging the characters for TV specials and the like. Vince Guaraldi won the job to score music for these efforts and he successfully composed many jazzy tunes that not only help define the characters but also serve as great listening! Many of the classics are here including “Linus and Lucy” – the Peanuts theme song, “Charlie’s Blues” and “Joe Cool”. Most of the music is slanted towards the cool blues side notably “Freda” and “Little Birdie” featuring Guaraldi singing. The music is timeless and accentuated by some excellent liner notes with profiles of each of the characters making this a very good package.

BUY NOW