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!