The Charlie Brown Suite & Other Favorites | List Price: $11.98
Discount Price: $7.64
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Binding: Audio CD
Release Date: 2003-08-19
mmmmmmm......Vince Guaraldi with strings.... [Posted on 2005-12-22]
This album is certainly not for the faint of heart...If you just want to hear some Charlie Brown music, go get the original sdtk to the christmas special.
On the other hand, if you really appreciate the twisted melodic genious of Guaraldi (like I do), this album is a must. I picked up this cd on a whim to preview it at Borders, and was blown away. Once I realized that the track 'Happiness Is' is actually a slower version of the 'Great Pumpkin Waltz' with strings, my jaw dropped. Then halfway through the song, Vince comes in with this solo that sends chills down my spine! And the fact that it's at a slower tempo allowed him to really take his time in expressing himself. Man...talk about sick!!! that track was worth the price alone. Then as I listened to the rest, and I found more great gems...like the way Vince playfully bounces around over the wonderfully melancholy arrangement of 'Rain Rain Go Away', and how vince musically captures the quirkiness of 'Peppermint Patty'.
And mind you that the majority of these tracks are live...no studio retakes...every lick Vince plays is improv.
Although there are some doubtful renditions on this album - like Linus and Lucy (a little too abstract for my taste), there are great finds on this cd well worth the price for the V.G. fan!
Excellent [Posted on 2006-03-13]
These are the Charlie Brown tunes -arranged for jazz orchestra by Vince Guaraldi. Vince and the trio are front and center throughout.
It takes a little bit of musical maturity to be able to appreciate these tracks.
So listen to the clips. They speak for themselves.
...Classical...Jazz...Charlie Brown... [Posted on 2006-06-22]
I was never a big fan of the Charlie Brown, sure I watched them but was never a fan. So I didn't think I would like this that much(it was a gift). But I was wrong.
I may have gotten the wrong CD if I wanted to hear Charlie Brown. This adds lots of extras to the original songs that appeared in the show specials, new instruments being the main addition. I did latter purchase the Christmas Show soundtrack, and I must say I like this one better. Charlie Brown enthusiest hate me for saying that but like I said I was never a fan of the original shows.
But this CD did have its faults with me. One being that at times I had to look down at my CD player and see how long I had been listening to the current song(that only happened to me like twice). And when you find yourself doing that you know that thats not the best album in the world. I think songs should leave you wanting more not asking when will this be over.
Despite that its still good, I liked most of the live "Suite" stuff being a big fan of live music. And at around eleven or twelve bucks you can't really go wrong.
Peace Kevin
Vince Guaraldi -- The Charlie Brown Suite [Posted on 2006-11-10]
Outstanding, especially the Peppermint Patty song. Essential for any Guaraldi fan.
Respectable music, spoilt by apalling performance [Posted on 2007-08-01]
Other reviewers slate this recording because it's not in keeping with the Guaraldi trio sound that made Charlie Brown so distinctive. That is in a way, a completely valid concern, but the fact remains, this recording is an interpretation, and not entirely a bad one.
Getting the negative points out the way first, the orchestra here is stunningly bad - possibly the most dreadful performance ever captured on tape. The amateur status of the musicians is very much on show, and is highly distracting as half the time, you're not hearing the music - you're wincing in pain at yet another instrumental flub. For some people, it will be very difficult to look through the deficient performance through to the music. As for that, a Toe Fungus diatribe it most definitely isn't (though one could argue, such a document would make fascinating reading to a chiropodist and proves the point that one man's garbage is another man's gold) - neither is it great. It's definitely interesting, diverting, and fun. Some sections do tend to drag on a little, without feeling like much progression is happening - Peppermint Patty in particular, feels considerably longer than it's six minutes.
I would - and so would you - enjoy this album considerably more if it were performed well.
As it stands, it's hard to recommend unless you're a Guaraldi completist or a Charlie Brown obsessive, or maybe if your son or daughter were playing in this orchestra - though I doubt anybody would want to commemorate their playing in any detailed fashion.
This recording will forever blot their reputations.
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