806 The Vince Guaraldi (1928-1976) Trio “Linus and Lucy” 1965

“There must have been times in 1963 when Vince Guaraldi was riding high on his surprise hit ‘Cast Your Fate to the Wind,’ when he thought: This is what I’ll be remembered for. Not that he have minded. He said taking requests for it was like signing the back of a check…He’d mostly be remembered for it, too, if soon after he hadn’t written the music for a TV Christmas special that CBS didn’t have much hope for” (National Public Radio, Fresh Air, 2012). 

“Charles Gompertz, a reverend in San Francisco, heard ‘Cast’ on the radio. He hired Guaraldi to write a jazz mass to be performed at the city's newly built Grace Cathedral. Guaraldi spent 18 months writing the music for his trio and a 68-voice choir. The score, performed live in May 1965, was a unique blend of jazz, Latin music and waltz tempos, said [Derrick] Bang: ‘It had not been done in the U.S. up until that time.’ A radio broadcast of ‘Cast’ also led to another job. [Producer Lee] Mendelson heard the song and hired Guaraldi in 1963 to provide the music for ‘A Boy Named Charlie Brown,’ a documentary film on [Charles] Schultz” (Pete Barlas, Investor’s Business Weekly, Dec. 23, 2010). A Charlie Brown Christmas album is listed on the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.

The Vince Guaraldi Trio “Linus and Lucy”