Post Description

Verenigde Staten
Jazz
Label: Fantasy
1. Oh, Good Grief (2:24)
2. Pebble Beach (2:51)
3. Happiness Is (3:43)
4. Schroeder (1:54)
5. Charlie Brown Theme (4:25)
6. Linus and Lucy (3:07)
7. Blue Charlie Brown (7:30)
8. Baseball Theme (3:15)
9. Freda (With the Naturally Curly Hair) (4:34)
10. Fly Me to the Moon (8:57)

totale tijdsduur: 42:40

If you like your jazz whimsical, melodic and utterly inoffensive then you will love this album. Billed as "The Original Sound Track Recording Of The CBS Television Special", this album provides a selction of songs originally used in the 1965 CBS TV documentary on Charles Schulz, the creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip. It is not to be confused with a 1969 animated feature film of the same name, although music by the Vince Guaraldi Trio was also featured there.

The recording itself is as old as I am, which is why I was very surprised by how "alive" and good the album sounded even after all these years. The piano tone is very natural, there's a lot of low frequency extension on the bass, and the cymbals positively sparkle. It's almost as if the trio was performing right here and now in my living room as opposed to in the year that I was born.

The soundstage has hard panning typical of early stereo recordings: the drums are on the left, the piano in the middle, and the bass on the right.

The CD layer sounded pretty good, but the SA-CD stereo mix even better - with the piano tone more "relaxed" and natural, and more detail on the cymbals. The bass also seemed better defined.

As would be expected, there is a fair amount of hiss which occasionally intrudes into quiet moments, particularly on track 4 (Schroeder) but not to the point of annoyance. There's also some evidence of tape saturation, particularly noticeable on track 9 (Freda).

All in all, a great recording to listen to on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Don't make the mistake of thinking this is "kiddies" music - the seemingly simply melodies are played with panache and sophistication.