Essential Standards

Long before his fame as the man behind the music for the Charlie Brown television specials, Vince Guaraldi was celebrated in jazz circles as an inventive, unfailingly swinging pianist. He worked with Cal Tjader, Woody Herman, the Chubby Jackson-Bill Harris band and the Lighthouse All-Stars. Then as the leader of his own trio, he hit the charts with Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus featuring bossa nova standards from the 1959 movie Black Orpheus. The album also included "Cast Your Fate to the Wind," a Guaraldi original that itself became a standard. Guaraldi's musicianship and the infectious qualities of his approach are on full display in this generous survey of his work.