Today I’m mostly confined to bed. By my own decree. Teresa’s at work. And I am on Easter break. Although it may be a bigger hiatus? That’s partly why I’m in bed!
I woke when Teresa got up, at 5.30am (mad!). But most of the time between about 9am and 3pm I’ve been in a 50/50 mix of resting/dozing, and outright sleeping. Snooker, with Kieran Wilson thrashing Ali Carter, on the Tour Championship, is helping on all fronts with rest and sleep!
An ornery mule, with an artist’s soul.
But around 2pm, after a second long chat with the alphabet soup brigade (the bouillabaisse of acronyms for mental-health organisations), I felt I needed an injection of culture and inspiration. So I hoyked a few art books off the shelves.
Angst meets beauty, in mixed media on canvas.
Having resumed a long derelict interest in making art, I thought I’d also resume the act of feeding on the soul food that art can be. Hence getting these tomes offa the shelves. Turner and The Sea, Guston, and de Kooning. Endless hours of fun and nourishment!
Not so eyebrow, n’est ce pas!?
And to keep my furrowed brows at the correct elevation, something a bit ‘Felix’ lighter!
No-brow? Love the Tintin style cover!
And of course, Viz. Thanks to the Viz Team I nearly died laughing last night.
Hokusai’s Wave is a beautiful piece of art. I’m choosing it for today’s post because it represents the tidal wave of sh!t I’m currently facing.
The politics of this obscure it’s personal resonance!
My tip-top favourite political satirist, Steve Bell, has done this great scatalogical reimagining of Hokusai’s masterpiece. The specific topical political baggage with this image – King (Tony) Cnut trying to face down a literal (Gordon) Brown tsunami – somewhat obscures my more generalised reading of it.
My only defence!
And how am I to stave off this towering wall, this fast-flowing fecal apocalypse? Naturally enough, with naught but a sticking-plaster. A Band-Aid. Well, it does say it’s ‘water-proof’!
I’ve been digging my other Vince Guaraldi Charlie Brown recordings so much I wanted more. A bit of rooting about online revealed this as a potential next acquisition. So I pulled the trigger!
It’s an odd album compared to the other two CB Guaraldi albums (A Boy Named CB, and A CB Christmas), in that they are both quite conventional musical albums. This, on the other hand, is a collection of shorter ‘musical cues’.
So rather than an album of longer recorded pieces derived from the shorter cues used on the TV animations, these are those short musical cues. And not only that, there are many repeated iterations of the same or very similar short musical themes.
This means this disc largely comprises many renderings of a rather limited number of compositions, plus a few more singular oddments. So, for example, take that old favourite, Linus and Lucy… there are seven, yes, seven versions here! Similarly, there are five Great Pumpkin Waltzes and five Graveyard Themes, and so on.
This makes listening to the entire CD in the way you would most normal albums a bit odd. I love the music contained herein. But I’m not sure how often I’d want to sit through such a repetitive program of music.
But let’s backtrack momentarily. How did this music come down the years to us in this form? Well, the love for Guaraldi’s Peanuts/Charlie Brown themed music endures, and a kind of ‘quest in to the archives’ brought to light what had long been assumed to be lost; master tapes of the Guaraldi sessions for this Halloween themed TV special.
And it’s clear from the liner notes that this has been a passion project for lovers of Guaraldi’s great jazzy extension of the whole Schulz Peanutsiverse, so to speak. So from the perspective of musical and artistic cultural archaeology this is pure gold. Five star fare!
And really it is musically, as well. Admittedly modern mastering does reveal some of the limitations of the source material, in terms of hi-fi or sonic clarity. For those in love with Guaraldi’s CB work, this is a great treasure trove. And I’d count myself in that demographic. But nonetheless, I’ll probably cherry pick my favourite tracks/takes, and make a more succinct less repetitive playlist, rather than frequently listening to the album entirely as it is.
For these 1966 dates Guaraldi was once again in trio with Monty Budwig (bass) and Colin Bailey (drums), who had recorded CB sessions with Vince before. But that core group was further augmented by guitarist John Gray, Emmanuel Klein (trumpet), and Ronald Lang (woodwinds). Also in the studio, in a new development, was a John Scott Trotter, credited with orchestration (waving a baton while the tape rolled, apparently!).
Back to the tunes: it’s interesting hearing the oh so familiar Linus & Lucy getting reworked, and with horns. And there are a few lovely themes or pieces unique to this special, such as the achingly gorgeous Great Pumpkin Waltz, and the spooky Graveyard Theme.
Then there are some slightly odder less oft repeated things, like Snoopy and the Leaf, Frieda, Fanfare/Breathless, and a little suite of solo piano ‘oldies’: It’s A Long Way to Tipperary/There’s a Long-Long Trail a-Winding/Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag/Roses of Picardy.
I’m pretty sure I read online that this stuff was released a while back in straight-off-the-soundtrack form, with sounds from the cartoon show included/intruding. Alas, I can’t recall where I read that? But mention was made that there was much grumbling about this, and a cleaned up version was in the works. I guess this must be that?
It’s an oddball CD, I guess, and probably likely to appeal most strongly to Guaraldi and/or Charlie Brown über-buffs. Whatever, as folk say these days, I’m glad I got it!
I had wanted to get this in time for the 2022 Yuletide season. But I didn’t. But, with gift voucher funds from Teresa and Patrick, I did finally get it after Xmas.
Speaking frankly, and especially as I’ve loved Guaraldi’s A Boy Named Charlie Brown for years now, I can’t believe it’s taken me over a half a century to get around to buying this. A truly terrific recording, this gets my occasional – and reserved for only the berry vest – six stars. It’s just utterly wonderful.
It’s one of those instances where less is more. Much, much more, in this case. Jazz is a musical style in which sometimes the tempos can be high, the vibe intense, and the notes hyper-abundant. This collection, however, belongs to a mellower more Chet Baker-esque jazz world. A musical universe of pretty melodies, and spare pared down playing. I love it!
And it’s not just Guaraldi’s own playing and composing that benefits from this approach. The sidemen here* are, for the most part (a little less so on one or two of the added bonus tracks at the end; we’ll get to them later), the essence of tastefully restrained.
‘Linus and Lucy’ is revisited on this recording, and is a case in point: the main theme is just piano – a beautifully rumbling train like piano – against very minimalist drumming, with the bass dropping out altogether. But the keys and drums duo sound is remarkably full. The bass appears when they go into the B-section, sometimes bossa, sometimes swing; but the vibe remains resolutely Spartan. Fantastic!
Apparently Guaraldi’s ’earthy’ style garnered him the nickname Dr Funk, on the local music scene of his native San Francisco, where he came to fame playing with Cal Tjader. And, whilst talking about learning more about this dude and his music, I’m definitely keen to find out if more of Guaraldi’s work, Schulz related or otherwise, is as good as the two Charlie Brown themed albums I now have. And to that end I intend to check out this NPR show on him:
Looks interesting!
One of Guaraldi’s drummers, Jerry Granelli, is either still going, or only recently passed. I remember watching him not long ago, online (YouTube, no doubt), including in a trio performing Guaraldi’s Peanuts stuff. It struck me that Granelli’s kit looked like an Ayotte, a Canadian drum brand of which I have a beautiful example.
Guaraldi himself passed away quite young, aged just 47. He was busy musically till the end, working on further Peanuts stuff, gigging, skiiing, and then boom… killed by a massive heart attack! Sad, really.
Back to the CD, and happier thoughts! The material is a mixture of trad Christmas stuff, from O Tannenbaum to Mel Tormé’s evergreen classic, The Christmas Song, with some Greensleeves, and a brief but beautiful Fur Elise, by Beethoven, as well as a good fistful of superb Guaraldi originals.
The liner notes to the CD are good, and talk about Guaraldi’s modest self-appraisal, and his desire to make pretty music, and be loved for it. Well, I agree with the liner notes author; you did it Vince, and we love ya!
A few pieces have vocals from a children’s choir, which just adds to the festive charm. The Choir of St Paul’s Episcopal Church do themselves and the music proud.
If you’re interested, you can read more on the Peanut’s Yuletide special here. Rather like the two page comic strip ad for the special itself, that Schulz produced (which finds Charlie Brown lamenting the commercialisation of the season), all this stuff, the music included, had a beautifully gentle and lightly wistful edge to it.
Utterly lovely! Can’t recommend it highly enough.
* Apparently Guaraldi wasn’t the best at keeping accurate records of who performed on his dates. Which has lead to some confusion over personnel credits.
The Cat… Gene’s buff, a speccy nerd obsessed with jazz!
How I feel sometimes when transcribing drum parts!The neighbours disapprove of The Cat’s listening habits.
Non Jazz stuff…
Not sure what he’s up to here. But look at all that fab gear!
Myeah… back to his primary love, good ol’ Jazz Music!
I love this pic; bassist looks after his bull fiddle in the rain.Ok, so I’m featuring this one again… but I just love it!Ditto this one!
If anyone’s interested, I found this, a page with an interesting selection of record changer magazines for sale, featuring the cover art of Deitch and others.
Gene, with sons Kim and Simon.Fantastic!We’ve all been here, right?What has come to be known more recently as ‘crate digging’.
Oh no! I just posted about cataloguing my CD collection on FB. I thought I’d illustrate that post with an image by Gene Deitch, whose character The Cat was an avid record collecting jazz buff.
Deitch did some amusingly prophetic cartoons.Haha… love this!
In finding an apt image, I discovered that Gene passed, aged 95, in 2020. I have a nice book, Cat On A Hot Thin Groove, about his illustrations for Record Changer magazine.
I bought this book about him years ago.
He also created characters like Nudnik, as well as animating such famous cartoons as Tom and Jerry and Popeye, and doing all sorts of other artistic/illustrative work. I’ve peppered this post with a few images by him I either love for their visual artistry, or their comic wit, or, frequently, both.
I got the image at the top of this post from an excellent obit’ from the NY Times, which you can read in full here.
Deitch in his Prague home/studio, in later life.I pinched this for an Xmas card one year.Bold abstraction meets jazzy figuration.His Record Changer covers alone would be a great legacy.
I’ve not watched Munro (1960) – see below – yet, but as soon as time allows, I’ll be doing so (tomorrow, perhaps?*) * aka later today!
I find Deitch’s art, by which I’m mainly referring to his Record Changer and jazz related cartoons, design and illustration work, really inspiring. His mainstream animation stuff I’m much less familiar with or aware of.
But, rather madly, I’ve discovered that Deitch was also involved with one of the earliest screen adaptations of Tolkien’s writings. I love Tolkien, and I was really quite surprised to find yet another point of connection here with Gene Deitch!
As with Munro, I’ve yet to watch this Hobbit based animation. I glanced at a minute or so of it, whilst drafting this post. It seems quite a loose adaptation! But I look forward to watching it in full.
Thanks to a FB pal’s post I learned of Joe Hill today. Not heard of him before.
An itinerant worker of Swedish ancestry, Hill was a ‘Wobblie’, or member of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), rising to prominence in that organisation as a songwriter and cartoonist, as well as for his vocal activism.
Hill was executed, aged just 36, in 1915. Allegedly for a robbery in which two men, father and son (the elder an ex-policemen), were killed. I know next to nothing about all this. So I’ll be looking into it. It’s pretty fascinating!
Tom Morello of RATM credits a whole lineage of protest music to Joe Hill’s leading example, which is interesting. As a musician and artist I’m immediately drawn to Hill, not just because I share his politics to some extent (to what extent I don’t know as yet!), but because art and music are my ‘bag’.
Rather strikingly, Hill’s will, reproduced below (along with a post-mortem photo showing his corpse, complete with the execution bullet holes!), is in verse. A poet to the last!
The popular perception on the left is that Hill is a martyr, a scapegoat, a ‘pesky agitator’ silenced by the boss class. Hill refused to exonerate himself entirely, claiming he was innocent. But unwilling to name a lady for love of whom he had, he said, been shot by a another man!
The gunshot wound, which he presented to a doctor on the same day as the fatal double shooting of which he was eventually accused, was, it seems, what got him the death penalty.
A tantalising tale! I must find out more.
One of Hill’s cartoon. I’m assuming the pianist is a self-portrait?
* Quite a striking/good looking dude! Could’ve been played by a young Willem Defoe, perhaps?
A sudden wave of nostalgia swept over me, recently, in the guise of the theme song from Hanna Barbera’s Hong Kong Phooey theme song.
Recently, well, today, to be precise, we watched almost all of the episodes whilst child-minding for my sister. I actually dozed off for a considerable portion. And then I had to help cook the evening meal. So I didn’t actually see as much as I’d hoped to.
Now, back home, I’m watching from the start again. And it’s really silly! Not amazing, but just kind of fun, especially as a dose of nostalgia.
Scatman Crothers.-
Scatman Crothers’ voice is perfect for Phooey, somehow approximating in vibe to his half-closed eyes when in Penry mode: mellow, relaxed, and winningly self-confident, despite his hopeless incompetence. Blissfully unaware that his triumphs are all accidental, or brought about by Spot, the cat, or other helpful characters.
Penry and Spot.The hapless Sgt Flint, centre.
Sgt Flint is endearing, as a gruff, dim and bear-like flat footed-copper. And Rosemary? I loved Rosemary way back when. And I find I still love her now! ‘Your lovable lady fuzz’!? Delicious!
Switchboard sweetheart, Rosemary.
The stories are ridiculous. Never was a ‘McGuffin’ less relevant to the enjoyment of a show! It’s all just an excuse to have Phooey (and frequently Spot) goofing about in crazy situations. The charmingly doofus Phooey, with his correspondence course book of Kung Fu up his sleeve, is undoubtedly where the charm lays.
For a cartoon with such a short run, it seemed to hit some kind of nerve, such that it’s remained on screens ever since it was made, way back in ‘74. And I find, that whilst I’m now far older, I still have a soft-spot for this mild mannered janitor/superhero, and his sidekicks, Spot, Flint, and very definitely, Rosemary!
