O Tannebaum: My Favorite Vince Guaraldi Christmas Jazz (Video)

I love the music of Vince Guaraldi, and the Christmas season always makes people aware of him. He was the jazz pianist and composer who wrote and performed the musical scores for the "Charlie Brown" cartoon series, including "A Charlie Brown Christmas," which is played every Christmas season on television. It first appeared for Christmas in 1965. My favorite Guaraldi Christmas tune is "O Tannebaum," which is German for "O Christmas Tree," if I am not mistaken. Guaraldi's mellow jazz interpretation of this song is fantastic, and I particularly love it when the string bass and drums start several measures into the song.

Here it is:  enjoy!


 

Vince Guaraldi's Last Gig Site (Butterfield's) Has Been Demolished

Site of Butterfield's Nightclub, in Better Days

The site of Butterfield's nightclub in Menlo Park, California, was the last place Vince Guaraldi played with his trio.  He died in the hotel next door during a set break on February 6, 1976, from an aneurysm near his heart.

I first visited the site on February 6, 2009, on the 33rd anniversay of Vince's death. I commented on the site and took photos of it; see Searching For Answers:  the Death of Vince Guaraldi.

The last time I saw the site was on March 3, 2010, when I noticed the building that was once Butterfield's nightclub had been boarded up.  See my post about it here.

Butterfield's has finally been demolished.  Reader JD works in Menlo Park and has regularly checked the site.  JD writes:

Found your post, "Vince Guaraldi's Last Gig Site (Butterfield's) All Boarded Up." Since I'm in Menlo Park quite a lot, I stopped by Wednesday to see if anything had changed. Oh, it has. Butterfield's is gone. Photo attached.

Had to shoot through the temporary construction fence. Looks like this is pretty fresh demolition, since the heavy gear is still on site.

And so it goes.

JD

Recently Excavated Site Where Butterfield's Once Stood

Stogie is "The Godfather of Bass": Our Saturday Band Jam

Our party in San Jose on Saturday went well.  We had invited other musician friends and we all took turns playing.  The pics below are not of my band, but of one of the other bands.  The female singer is our singer, however, shown belting it out for the guests.

Our singer belts it out.  She is cool.















Click here to see more.

Blue, Blue Monday: Stogie as a Walmart Greeter and Bass Player

Northern California is colored gray today -- it is raining hard with strong winds.  I am still unemployed -- seven months now.  I have never before been unemployed in my life.  Rush Limbaugh says that unemployment insurance payments tends to keep people unemployed, under the assumption that if people are paid not to work, they won't.  I really can't say that is true for me, Rush -- I apply for jobs every single day.  The unemployment I am receiving helps but it is not enough to cover my bills.  Without savings, we would have lost our house by now.

The economy is really hurt this time.  This is not your usual economic down cycle:  it is far worse than that.  I will not give up, though.  I'll work even if I have to become a Walmart greeter.  "Welcome to Walmart!  Now get your ass in here and buy something, we're not in business for our health, you schmucks!"  (Perhaps I should soften my greeting a bit in order to enhance my chances of getting hired.)  [Kudos to Walmart for giving employment and opportunity to people who need it.]

We had another band practice last night.  We tried out a young guitar player.  He was great.  Blues riffs flowed seamlessly out of his Fender Strat.  A good musician can do that -- sit in with a band and sound like he/she has been practicing with that band for ages.  The young gitfiddler decided we were not for him -- he's heavily into Stevie Ray Vaughn and finds jazz too laid back.  No problem, we weren't offended in the least.  We then beat him up, broke his red Strat over his head and dumped him in an alley on the bad side of town.  (Just kidding.)  Actually, we like Stevie Ray Vaughn too -- just not a steady diet.

My bass playing continues to evolve and shine -- funny how regular practice will do that.  The band members were telling me, "Gee that sounded good, Stogie!"  I was taken aback and felt embarrassed.  "Just doin' my job, gang!"  Some of the songs we are practicing now:

1.  "Why Don't You Do Right?," by Peggy Lee.  This great old jazz/blues tune was revived in the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," when Rabbit's cartoon wife sang the song in a nightclub.  Peggy Lee (of "Fever" fame) recorded the tune in 1942 with Benny Goodman.



2.  "That's Why I'm Crying," by Koko Taylor.  Very bluesy.  I love this tune.  Chords are easy but the song has soul -- one of those songs you can really feel in your bones.  See YouTube embed below if you want to listen.



3.  "Rio de Janeiro Blue," by Randy Crawford.  Another bluesy/jazz tune.  See embed below for the tune.

Stogie's Band to Play for Wounded Vets

I had my second practice last night with the new band.  In three weeks, we are scheduled to play for wounded vets at the V.A. Hospital in Palo Alto.  We won't be the only entertainment, but still it is an honor to play for these veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.  So between now and then, it is practice, practice, practice!

Music and Musicians on Monday: Stogie the Bass Player Strikes Again

I didn't blog yesterday because I was getting ready to practice with a band in San Jose.  They do a mixed bag of songs, including classic rock, pop and standards.  They have a guitar player, a drummer, a female singer who is quite good, and another musician who plays keyboard and also flute.  They are looking for a bass player and that was my role.  For this band I played my Fender bass guitar rather than my upright bass.

I didn't feel much like practicing but once the music got going, so did I.  The band seemed to like me and said so.  They wanted to play Peggy Lee's "Fever," and asked me to play the bass intro, which I know, so I started in and after the second run-through the band and singer seamlessly joined in.  It was quite cool. (See video of Peggy Lee embedded on the right - note the bass intro.)  We went on to practice for about five hours.

They gave me a handful of sheet music and a CD of their songs and told me to come back next Sunday, their regular practice day.  The guitar player told me about chordie.com, where you can print out lyrics and chords for all kinds of songs that musicians post there.   It's like an online fake book.  I depend a lot on my ear and my ear has become razor sharp at discerning keys and chords, but there is nothing like have the music right in front of you.  Duh!  So I will now begin collecting sheet music and fake books (musician books of many songs with lyrics and chords).  That is clearly the fastest way to get ready to play.

I learned something from this practice, and that was to gather sheet music or sheets with lyrics and chords, as it will quickly add more songs to my repertoire.  I have a lot of Jamey Aebersold books of song chords, but the music doesn't contain the lyrics, and that makes the chord changes difficult to follow.  Without the lyrics, it is easy to get lost.  Now I know why my progress has been slow following the sheet music chords.

Funny, when you push on doors they sometimes open to the answers you seek.