Wednesday, April 18, 2012

This Day in Jazz History (Guaraldi’s ‘Fate to the Wind’ in Unexpected Hit)


April 18, 1962—Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus was released on this date by Fantasy Records, which soon found a happy surprise: A pair of deejays, instead of playing what was supposed to be the breakout single of composer Vince Guaraldi’s LP, began giving heavy airplay to the B side. A year later, “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” would earn gold record status and a Grammy as Best Instrumental Jazz Composition.

As a teen, growing up listening to the New York progressive rock station WNEW-FM, I would be enthralled by the soaring closing theme played by deejay Dennis Elsas. Eventually, I learned that this was “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” and that the talented pianist highlighted there had also composed the soundtrack for the Yuletide classic A Charlie Brown Christmas as well as other TV Peanuts specials.

Go through all kinds of jazz anthologies, though, and you’ll be lucky to find anything on the San Francisco-based pianist. At the same time, many of the artists who are featured in these books never attained the level of commercial success achieved, albeit for only the length of his shortened life, by Guaraldi.

His non-Peanuts compositions deserve to be known as widely as wonderful work such as “Linus and Lucy” and “Christmastime Is Here.” “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” is the natural place to begin.

As the title of the LP indicates, the starting point for this was Antonio Carlos Jobin’s soundtrack to the 1959 film, Black Orpheus. As another jazzman, Stan Getz, would be two years later with "The Girl From Ipanema," Guaraldi was much taken with Jobin’s work, and several songs from this LP--his first with a newly formed trio--would be inspired by it. When Fantasy Records got Guaraldi’s finished product, they decided to promote, as the first single, "Samba de Orpheus."


Buck Herring and Tony Bigg, program director and music director (respectively) at Sacramento's KROY, had other ideas. They began playing “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”—in a big way. Every two hours, actually. The song then entered the charts, where it stayed for another 18 weeks.

The song opened a window of commercial opportunity for Guaraldi, who had been reluctant to expand beyond his fervent San Francisco base by extensive touring. That window widened further with the Peanuts specials.

There are musicians who tire of fan demands for their most famous works. (Joni Mitchell, for instance: "Nobody ever said to Van Gogh, 'Paint a Starry Night again, man!'") Not Guaraldi. His response invariably was, "It's like signing your name to a check."

Fans came to appreciate other, non-musical aspects of "Dr. Funk," too, such as his widely varying haircuts, unusual hats, and, as can be seen in the image accompanying this post, a flamboyant moustache.

Guaraldi had finished his 16th Peanuts soundtrack when he was stricken dead by a heart attack in 1976. None of the composers who succeeded him in his Peanuts role lasted as long or made as indelible an impact.

Since Guaraldi’s death, cover versions of his songs—especially Charlie Brown Christmas tunes—have been released by the likes of Shawn Colvin, Dianne Reeves, Diana Krall, She and Him, and Sarah McLachlan, to name just a few. But perhaps his most devoted musical acolyte is George Winston, who has recorded two CDs of Guaraldi material: Linus and Lucy and Love Will Come

It also appears that, at long last, Guaraldi is receiving sustained biographical treatment, courtesy of Derrick Bang’s Vince Guaraldi at the Piano. Many fans, I’m sure, will be anxious to hear about this fine musician and composer who died way too soon.

In the meantime, sit back and click on this YouTube audio clip of "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" and let yourself be swept away.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thanks for this wonderful and well-deserved post, Mike! As one Guaraldi fan to another, I strongly urge you (and any interested readers) to pick up a copy of "Vince Guaraldi at the Piano," a vibrantly comprehensive, and long overdue bio of one of my favorite jazz musicians/composers.

FWIW, here's my review that I left on the bookseller's site (in which I noted the same anniversary that you have):

In one fell swoop, this exhaustive musical biography masterfully fills the information void on one of the 20th Century's most popular yet under-appreciated jazz pianists, Vince Guaraldi. Best known nowadays for his Peanuts television soundtracks, Guaraldi was an anchor and innovator in the West Coast jazz scene, as well as a Grammy-winning composer, years before his Charlie Brown fame. This definitive written account of his life and career will be a joyful revelation to Guaraldi fans, and belongs in every library that contains materials on musical history, American jazz, San Francisco, or 20th Century popular culture.

It's all in there, in new and greater detail than you've ever seen before, unfurled against the backdrop of the beatnik 1950s, swinging 1960s, and groovy 1970s: Touring with Woody Herman, the Cal Tjader years, the first Monterey Jazz Festival, "Cast Your Fate to the Wind," the Grace Cathedral Mass, the Peanuts soundtracks, the Charlie Brown Suite, Vince's electric rock and fusion experimentation, his sudden death and posthumous acclaim, and so much more.

The success of this book reflects the singular talents of Derrick Bang, whose decades of experience as a California-based entertainment writer, Guaraldi aficionado, and implacable researcher shine through in every page. The text flows merrily along, even when it is chock-full of facts and particulars. Having done some archival research on Guaraldi myself, I am amazed at the breadth of materials that Mr. Bang has discovered, digested, and woven together into a single, cohesive narrative. This is especially the case for Guaraldi's early life and career, which are lacunae no more, thanks almost completely to this book.

The book *really* swings when it gets to Guaraldi's mid-career point, drawing on the recollections of sidemen, collaborators, and friends to flesh out the musical achievements for which he was (and is) best known. This is a musical biography that remains true to Vince Guaraldi's own, personal focus as a driven performer and composer who maintained a relentless work schedule all the way to the end of his (tragically short) life. It left me with a deeper appreciation of a musician whose contributions and popularity have become clear only in the decades after his death.

The book packs a vast amount of information onto 390 large pages, thanks to economical margins and font size. The biography is cross-referenced with over 1,200 endnotes, which make it an invaluable touchstone for jazz historians and fans wanting to dive deeper into primary sources. The three appendices ("Remembering Dr. Funk," "Discography," and "Filmography") are at least as much fun to read as the main text, and have sent me scurrying back to my discs (to listen to old favorites with new ears) as well as to Amazon (to help fill holes in my Guaraldi collection).

Whether by design or happenstance, "Vince Guaraldi at the Piano" has arrived concurrently with the 50th anniversary of Vince's breakout hit, "Cast Your Fate to the Wind." I am grateful for this worthy, anniversary treat, which has better equipped me to understand to the life and times that gave us the timeless music of Vince Guaraldi.