Vince Guaraldi's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" record is as important as "Bill Evans - Live At The Village Vanguard"

Jazz musicians and afficiandos can be snobby when it comes to what is defined as "Jazz."  The term "Jazz" itself is as encompassing as what is labeled "Rock" and "Pop" music and this is my humble attempt at pointing out the similarities and differences between these two jazz standard albums, "A Charlie Brown Christmas," and "Bill Evans - Live At The Village Vanguard."

Vince Guaraldi recorded "A Charlie Brown Christmas," in 1965 for the upcoming animated holiday special with the same name on the Fantasy label.

"Bill Evans - Live At The Village Vanguard" was recorded on a Sunday afternoon and evening in 1961.  It was released as 2 sides in October 1961 on Riverside.  A 3-disc box set was released by Riverside in 2006 that includes every song but one from all 5 sets.

Vince had a trio consisting of himself on piano, Fred Marshall on bass and Jerry Granelli on drums.  Monty Budwig and Colin Bailey would step in for one track, "Greensleeves."

Bill's trio was: Bill, piano; Scott LaFaro, bass; Paul Motian, drums.

Vince recorded in a studio; Bill was live at the Village Vanguard to a not crowded house.  You can hear the audience have conversations and the usual bar sounds of clinking glasses and orders being taken.

Vince paints a complete picture of the look and feel of winter and the Christmas holiday.  Bill showcases the personnel he had searched for for years.  Tragically, this is the last recording of this trio as Scott LaFaro would be dead from a car crash 10 days later.

Vince comes out swinging with a medium tempo "O, Tannebaum" while Bill provides a more introspective start with LaFaro's "Gloria's Step."  On the original album it takes until the third track "Solar" for the trio to move into medium tempo.

Both records feature stellar piano playing, amazing bass lines and incredible brush work.  While the Vince Guaraldi Trio plays more "inside" (for commercial) appeal, the Bill Evans Trio features melodic interplay between Bill and Scott while Paul fills in the holes and lets the time "float."

Both records also feature the upright bass as both Fred and Scott get ample solo opportunities.  Jerry's brush work on the holiday tunes is hauntingly beautiful and smooth while Paul swings, interjects and pushes his bandmates.

Both "CBC" and "LAVV" have been rated 10/10 on allmusic.com 

Both are extremely popular with their own audiences but Vince's record has more cross-over appeal to jazz performers and listeners.  While you could play Vince's record anytime it is usually only heard during the holidays; Bill's record can be played anytime.  I hope you enjoy both these albums as much as I do.  Merry Xmas and happy holidays.

We are all combatants in the "war on christmas"

The modern war on christmas began in the early 2000's when fox news commentator Bill O'Reilly began railing against businesses that were asking their employees to say "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry christmas."  Fox news and other right wing media ran with the idea that this was a direct attack on white, christian america and prompted the sale of thousands of t-shirts and bumper stickers proclaiming, "jesus is the reason for the season."  Sarah Palin wrote a book on it; Pat Buchanan even went so far as to say that curbs on traditional christmas themes and greetings were "hate crimes against christianity."  This was post-9/11 and fox news had surpassed CNN as the most watched news channel.  Yikes.

The right (mostly fox news) added ammunition to the battle by posting which stores were not mentioning the holiday directly by name online and on news broadcasts.  About this time the liberal left began protesting the inclusion of nativity scenes in public places and, as of late, have been condemning children's holiday specials like "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "A Christmas Story," and a Cleveland radio station made headlines when it banned the song, "Baby It's Cold Outside" due to "date-rapey" overtones.  They condemn "Rudolph" because of the bullying and exclusionary tones and "A Christmas Story" because it displays a greedy commercialism "unrivaled in the history of Xmas."
(Regarding "Baby, It's Cold Outside:"  That song, plain and simply, fucking sucks and it is not even remotely associated with Xmas.  It was a piece of shit before the #mettoo movement had their say.)

It's all too much.  Everyone is ruining this time of year with their beliefs, their stances, their opinions.*  If you are like me and love the Xmas holiday here is what you can do to make the season bright: Make your own decisions on what you want to listen to, celebrate the holidays as you see fit, spend all your money on gifts or better yet don't.  Feel nostalgic but don't let nostalgia rule the day; the holidays weren't really any better or easier when we were kids.  Call an old friend, donate to a cause you believe in, most importantly spend time with family and friends.  Do not read internet articles about how terrible a holiday special is or watch fox news; "war" and "christmas" should never be in the same sentence.  

Merry christmas, happy holidays, good yule, happy kwanzaa, Merry Xmas, and all the best for a safe and successful 2019. 

*You may notice how I have written certain words with lower case letters and others with capital letters.  It shouldn't ruin you day that I will verbally wish you a "merry christmas" but I will type "Xmas" since I believe in the traditional celebrations of the holiday (Yule, winter solstice, etc.) and not the religious hijacking that took place hundreds of years ago.  Opinions!

Grade School Music and Mr. Killam

In addition to my small but growing record collection there was a musical outlet at school and that was Mr. Killam's music classes.  In elementary school we had 1 period of music class... was it everyday?  Or just a few times a week...?  At any rate we would march ourselves up to the music room and Mr. Killam would teach us how to sing songs and eventually we would sing for the Christmas concert or some such school event.  Band hadn't started yet for us; we would be able to join in 6th Grade.  I was very much into the drums although my kiddie drum set was long gone and a distant memory.  I had rhythm, I had music who could ask for anything more?

At one point Mr. Killam had a song that required hand percussion with many different parts.  I believe I volunteered for the bongos but then he demonstrated what the clave (pronounced klah-vay) was doing and I switched.  I do remember some classmates looking at me like I was crazy, as in "You're crazy to give up the bongo part!  Drums!" but the clave rhythm was much hipper and fun to my ears.  Plus you can't leave an important part like the clave to just anybody!  Who's gonna play it?  Donna Smith?  Rene LaPierre?  Hell no.

Music class was fun, maybe more fun than lunch and recess.  I was into it and Mr. Killam knew I was into it.  I think that's why he consistently selected me to play instruments when required.  I liked singing all the corny songs and I loved the fact that we got up in front of an audience and performed.  When it was over they clapped no matter how good or awful it was. I liked the applause.

So eventually we arrive at 5th grade.  Other highlights from 3rd-5th grade include playing "Crispy Critters" by C.W. McCall for the class on Mrs. Vachon's record player which almost cause a riot (3rd grade); learning how to sing "Silent Night" in German for a Christmas pageant in 4th grade; and getting a part in a class play in 5th grade only to throw my neck out of whack on the playground and missing my chance to act.  It's O.K. though.  I've met many actors in my life and they are all psychotic.

Then one day they brought us all down to the gym to hear the High School Band play.  We thought it was just a free day since it was close to the end of school.  Sitting on the bleachers with my buds I was transfixed by the drums.  Oh I had heard the band before but I realized this semi-private show was a little more important so I was a little more focused.  Ms. Divers was the director, a manly woman, but a good person.  She explained that in the next few weeks we would have a chance to try out instruments so that we could participate in the band program.  I already knew what I wanted to do.  I think the band played a few pieces but the one that caught my ear was "The Mickey Mouse March" and the drums had a chance to do the famous roll off, like the one you hear at the beginning of a 20th Century Fox movie.  I was hooked.  I knew some of the high school kids vaguely from hanging around the Colebrook Country Club pool (please... its not that kind of country club) where I also discovered Cheap Trick.  "Live At Budokan" had been released one summer and it was the soundtrack for the entire summer.