Vince Guaraldi - The Complete Warner Bros-Seven Arts Recordings [2CD Set] (2018)

• All three Warner-Seven Arts albums remastered on 2 CDs. • Includes 4 previously unissued bonus tracks. • Liner notes by Guaraldi biographer, Derrick Bang. Many people got to know Vince Guaraldi through his 1963 Grammy®-winning song, “Cast Your Fate To The Wind,” or via the group, Sounds Orchestral’s top 10 cover of it two years later. Lee Mendelson heard Guaraldi’s version while working on a Peanuts documentary, and contacted Guaraldi, asking him to score the upcoming Peanuts Christmas special. It was a match made in television and musical history. With songs like “Linus And Lucy” and “Christmas Time Is Here,” the special a hit and for over five decades not a holiday season goes by without an airing of the television classic. So potent and successful was the Peanuts/Guaraldi combination that Guaraldi went on to score a total of 15 Peanuts television specials and the first feature film. In 1968, Vince made a label switch from his long-time home, Fantasy Records, to his new label, Warner Bros. Records. For his inaugural album, he decided to re-interpret his Peanuts classics on Oh, Good Grief! In addition to the instantly recognizable Guaraldi sound of piano, bass, and drums, this time he added electric guitar and electric harpsichord to the mix. 1969’s The Eclectic Vince Guaraldi lived up to its title and found Guaraldi experimenting with everything from a large string section, to his first recorded vocal debut (covering the singer/songwriter, Tim Hardin), to original compositions that could be described as lengthy rock jams. Guaraldi’s last album for the label and last ever album, came in early 1970 and was called Alma-Ville. It certainly ranks among his best-ever albums. Six of the nine songs that appear on this ‘return to jazz’ project were Guaraldi originals and recorded with several different ensembles. Besides the original compositions, Alma-Ville finds Guaraldi covering The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” which had become a staple of his live performances, Duke Pearson’s “Cristo Redentor” and the Michel Legrand/Norman Gimbel song “Watch What Happens.”