Watching Peanuts holiday-themed TV specials has been an American tradition since the mid-’60s and the first 16 of these specials were scored by Vince Guaraldi, a renowned pianist and composer who became forever linked to Charles Schulz’s creation due to his artfully accessible soundtracks.
Though there hadn’t been any specials debuting for a while as Schulz, Guaraldi and producer Lee Mendelson are all no longer with us, there’s now a meaningfully new soundtrack record out from one of those specials. Lee Mendelson Film Productions has put forth a limited release of the 1973 A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving soundtrack packed with previously unreleased/unheard music, just in time for 2023’s turkey holiday season. Guaraldi’s tenth Peanuts animated special featured his music more than was usual and bolstered by a solid crew of Tom Harrell (trumpet/brass arrangements), Chuck Bennett (trombone), Seward McCain (electric bass) and Mike Clark (drums).
His unique voicings which could be crisp and aggressive without being threatening, enabled him to achieve the seemingly incompatible feat of being puckish while being easily embraceable by the young audience of these children’s cartoon specials. By the time of Guaraldi’s tenth soundtrack, many of his tunes were recycled from prior soundtracks but Thanksgiving introduces three new ones: “Thanksgiving Theme,” “Is It James or Charlie?” and, most memorably, “Little Birdie.”
The inclusion of the previously unheard tracks is very revealing in that they show a Guaraldi who loved to tinker, experiment and stay contemporary. He had already started dabbling with electric keyboards a number of years prior and by this time, he was fully embracing it while never ditching the piano and the breezy, spotless style that made him so influential. Guaraldi’s creative bent also gets amplified by Terry Carleton’s remixing of the cues used in the film which put the rhythm section further up front. Discreetly, this release is a soundtrack for serious jazz heads and fusion heads as much as it’s for fans of the popular Peanuts television specials.
Clark was clearly a favorite of Guaraldi by this time, who early in his career in 1973 was already serving as Guaraldi’s drummer for several years while also one of the inventors of the East Bay funk rhythm. Within another year he’d join Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters band and apply his innovative drumming skills to Hancock’s classic funk-jazz album Thrust. But Guaraldi knew before then what he had in Clark and utilized that ingenuity for the recordings of this soundtrack, made manifest for the first time on this release because the addition of nine never-heard-before takes. We even get to listen in on the two working out the pulse for a song on the practice piece “Clark and Guaraldi.”
It’s almost as if this point about Guaraldi newly embracing this contemporary funk is explicitly being made with the first two tacks. “Charlie Brown Blues,” like many of the songs here, has more than one take put on the record, and the contrast between the two renditions presented. The first go around is your standard piano trio presentation, and a snappy one at that. The second one that follows it sees Guaraldi’s piano dubbed over by his Fender Rhodes playing complementing lines over a very contemporary, funky rhythm section. “Is It James or Charlie?” is apparently a reference to James Brown, as the easygoing, Rhodes-led groove is a nod to the Godfather of Funk.
Harrell’s horn arrangements are ace and nowhere is that more so than on the utterly charming but hip “Little Birdie,” a tune about the Woodstock bird character and a laid-back vocal sung by none other than Guaraldi himself. The “Thanksgiving Theme” is a clever reworking of “Skating” from A Charlie Brown Christmas with Harrell taking on solo duties on the only reprise that ran long enough to allow for one. Just as fascinating are the 30-second run-throughs of “Thanksgiving Prelude,” most of which could have been left off a Crusaders album of the time and suggested Clark didn’t have to make such a major adjustment from Guaraldi to Hancock as one might think.
Several songs have appeared on prior Peanuts specials but Guaraldi’s reworkings of them show his tireless efforts to make his latest version his best one. Guaraldi unobtrusively layers in a clavinet and two electric pianos to go along with acoustic piano for “Peppermint Patty,” making a fetching melody radiate even more. And then there’s that signature Guaraldi Peanuts song “Linus and Lucy,” an already funky tune made funkier by a new ascending four-chord figure tacked on to the end of every fourth measure. Harrell’s horns offer melodic counterpoints at carefully chosen spots, expanding the sound while holding close to the original spirit.
I go along with the consensus in that A Charlie Brown Christmas is my favorite Yuletide-themed album. Likewise, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is now easily my favorite Thanksgiving-themed album. Not that it has much competition, but Vince Guaraldi made sure it wasn’t going to get much, anyway.
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