“In 1963, Lee Mendelson was a young San Francisco filmmaker working on a documentary about Schulz, whose “Peanuts” cartoon strip was fast becoming a national craze. He needed music for a two-minute animated segment of his film. Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, he heard a catchy jazz tune on the radio called ‘Cast Your Fate to the Wind,’ which was written and performed by Guaraldi, who also lived in the Bay Area.”
This Washington Post feature on a great jazz pianist and composer notes that “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” was “one of the last instrumental jazz tunes to be a crossover hit — and earned Guaraldi a Grammy Award in 1963 for best original jazz composition.” This piece lead to Guaraldi composing the music to “A Charlie Brown Christmas” among other classics.
(via Cranach)
By the way, how many things on God’s green earth are better than good piano jazz? Probably just a dozen or so, wouldn’t you think?
One of our favorite CDs is one of George Winston playing a number of Guaraldi pieces, including “Cast Your Fate To The Wind” and a number of the Peanuts selections. And Linus’ recitation of Luke 2 is one of the most beautiful things ever allowed on television.
Let me cast my vote for Bill Evans. (Your local library might have a classic video (documentary) of his you can try.)
*snort* During a long and stressful rehearsal Wednesday night – I muttered to one of the altos how great it would be if the pianist broke into “Linus and Lucy” and we all started dancing like the Charlie Brown kids… Ah good times – good times…