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Eric Mintel Quartet presents the music of Vince
Guaraldi at the Hayes Center in Blowing Rock
By Jeff Eason
Pianist and composer Vince Guaraldi has never been given the credit
that he deserves for introducing an
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The Eric Mintel Quartet will perform
songs from Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack to A Charlie
Brown Christmas at the Hayes Performing Arts Center in
Blowing Rock on Saturday, November 24th. Photo by Henry
Wein.
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entire generation of music lovers to the joys of jazz music. Jazz
purists probably hate to think about the huge number of listeners
who first got hooked on jazz while watching Charlie Brown, Snoopy,
Linus and Lucy dancing merrily by a sad little Christmas tree…but
it’s true.
42 years after the television debut of the holiday special A Charlie
Brown Christmas, Vince Guaraldi’s piano-driven soundtrack
for the half-hour cartoon evokes a feeling of nostalgic comfort
similar to sitting in front of a fireplace while watching the
snow fall outside the window.
The Eric Mintel Quartet will present a concert titled A Jazz Holiday
at the Mariam and Robert Hayes Center for the Performing Arts
in Blowing Rock on Saturday, November 24th starting at 7:30 p.m.
The concert will feature the music of Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack
for A Charlie Brown Christmas plus other holiday and jazz favorites.
Tickets are on sale now.
“We put our own stamp on all of those Vince Guaraldi favorites
like ‘Christmas Time is Here Again,’ ‘Skating’
and ‘Linus and Lucy’,” said Mintel. “His music
is such a great way of introducing a lot of young kids—and
adults—to the wonders of jazz.”
The Eric Mintel Quartet has been a driving force in straight ahead
piano jazz since 1993. The band features Mintel on piano, Nelson
Hill on alto saxophone and flute, Dave Antonow on electric bass
guitar and Dave Mohn on drums. The band is based out of eastern
Pennsylvania and annually plays at many of the jazz festivals
in New England and on the East Coast.
The quartet’s November 24th performance in Blowing Rock will
kick off its 6th annual Jazz Holiday Tour. Future engagements
on the tour include stops in Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts,
New York and New Jersey.
“I guess you would have to say that we have a Dave Brubeck
Quartet style of sound,” said Mintel. “It’s lyrical
and melodic, but it’s also very high energy and accessible.”
In addition to playing the music of Vince Guaraldi, the Eric Mintel
Quartet plays plenty of originals and jazz classics. The band
released its latest CD, Times Change, in April of this year and
Mintel previously put out an album of solo piano holiday music
under the title Silent Night.
One of Mintel’s jazz heroes delivered the ultimate praise
when pianist Dave Brubeck said, “ As long as the music attracts
dedicated young musicians like Eric Mintel jazz will continue
to thrive and progress as a voice of freedom. The world needs
their voices.”
The parallels between Mintel, Brubeck and Guaraldi are numerous.
All three musicians discovered a love for playing the piano at
an early age and each found that they enjoyed composing new works
as much as playing the music of other jazz musicians. At the age
of 15, when his instructor was trying to steer Mintel toward the
basics, Eric was already tackling Brubeck compositions such as
“Blue Rondo a la Turk” and “Take Five.”
After forming his band in 1993, Mintel continued his interest
in larger orchestras and composed the ambitious Millennium Suite
for orchestra and jazz quartet. Over the years, Mintel has performed
at the White House for President Clinton in 1998, been featured
in Down Beat Magazine in 2005, and has been a featured guest on
Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz on National Public Radio.
Recently the Eric Mintel Quartet opened a concert for Dave Brubeck
at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.
Vince Guaraldi
A veteran of San Francisco’s live jazz scene of the 1950s,
Vincent Anthony Guaraldi, got his first big break at the Black
Hawk working as an intermission pianist filling in for the legendary
Art Tatum.
“It was more than scary,” Guaraldi said later. “I
came close to giving up the instrument, and I wouldn’t have
been the first after working with Tatum.”
But he hung in there, later forming his own quartet with other
California jazz musicians. Like Brubeck and Mintel, Guaraldi’s
classic foursome included piano, alto sax, bass and drums.
Guaraldi had his first hit in 1962 when the B-side tune “Cast
Your Fate to the Wind” became a certified Gold Record and
earned the 1963 Grammy for Best Instrumental Jazz Composition.
The recording earned him national recognition and he was later
commissioned to write a modern jazz piece for San Francisco’s
Grace Cathedral’s choral Eucharist. The album version of
that piece became another hit for Guaraldi.
The pianist first collaborated with cartoonist Charles Schulz
for a 1964 television documentary titled A Boy Named Charlie Brown
(not to be confused with the big screen feature of the same name).
Guaraldi’s compositions for jazz trio were perfect for the
documentary but, unfortunately, network television passed on the
show. It remains unseen to this day.
When Schulz, Guaraldi, writer/producer/director Lee Mendelshon
and artist Bill Melendez reunited the next year to work on A Charlie
Brown Christmas however, the quartet struck television franchise
gold. The holiday cartoon turned into a television institution
and Guaraldi would return to create music magic for subsequent
Peanuts specials. Although dismissed by some jazz lovers, Guaraldi’s
Peanuts soundtracks featured some truly original compositions
such as “The Great Pumpkin Waltz.”
On February 6, 1976, Guaraldi died of a sudden heart attack in
a motel room between sets at Menlo Park’s Butterfield’s
nightclub. He was 47 years old. A few weeks later the Peanuts
special It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown debuted on television.
It was the 15th and last such special to feature the original
music of Vince Guaraldi, some of which he recorded on the afternoon
of the day he died.
“I don’t think I’m a great piano player,”
Guaraldi said once in an interview. “But I would like to
have people like me, to play pretty tunes and reach the audience.
And I hope some of those tunes will become standards. I want to
write standards, not just hits.”
Tickets
Tickets for A Jazz Holiday featuring the Eric Mintel Quartet performing
the music of Vince Guaraldi from A Charlie Brown Christmas are
$20 for adults and $15 for students. Tickets are available by
calling (828) 295-9627 or online at www.brcac.org. For more information,
call (828) 295-9627.
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