Greetings Friends,
On this day, SpragueLand switches the holiday button ON and it’s ironic that as a good portion of the nation is dealing with serious cold, over here in Encinitas, as far as you can see, it’s max blue and green. The blue as the sky meets the ocean and the green of the trees from some wonderful recent rain. And I hate to rub it in but it’s 70 degrees outside too.
It’s a good day to be alive making music…
We’ve been rehearsing Vince Guaraldi music and we’re going live in Fallbrook on Sunday afternoon at the Mission Theatre. It’ll be the whole gang playing songs off of our “Christmas Time Is Here” recording.
Here’s the backstory:
Good grief! It’s me and Charlie Brown meeting in the middle for some holiday jazz. Let your yule tide spirits soar as I spin some of my inspirational arranging moves into the soundtrack of the beloved holiday television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. First released in 1965, the album by American composer and jazz pianist, Vince Guaraldi, is renowned for jazzing up the sound score of the Peanuts gang’s story about the true meaning of Christmas.
The band includes some of the best with:
Allison Adams Tucker — vocals
Beth Ross Buckley — flute
Tripp Sprague —sax and flute
Danny Green — piano
Mack Leighton — bass
Duncan Moore — drums
Peter Sprague — guitar
Actual CD Alert!
I went ahead and got CD’s printed for those of you that still listen to music on discs. Here’s the info on how you can order them. (They will be available at the concert too.)
For this week’s video we tune into our version of “What Child is This?” off of the “Christmas Time is Here” album. My inspiration for the arrangement included a Metheny like bass line riding below some expanded harmony. Check it out…
There it is folks and if you can’t make the Fallbrook concert we’re also playing the Charlie Brown music on Dec.19th and 20th at the Conrad Theatre in La Jolla.
all good things, Peter