A long-overdue issue of this jazzy Peanuts classic – music that's delighted ears for decades, yet never got the same sort of commercial release as Charlie Brown Christmas music! As with that work, the music here all comes from the genius of Vince Guaraldi – and given the early 70s recording of the tunes, Vince definitely has updated his style since the 60s – using Fender Rhodes at times, and even having an electric sensibility to his acoustic piano work too – a sense of spacing and timing that's totally great! The core combo features a young Tom Harrell on trumpet, plus Chuck Bennett on trombone, Seward McCain on bass, and Mike Clark on drums – a very cool jazzy group. Vince sings on the wonderful tune "Little Birdie", which has some larger arrangements – and other titles include "Is It James Or Charlie", "Thanksgiving Theme", "Charlie Brown Blues", "Peppermint Patty", "Linus & Lucy", and "Thanksgiving Interlude". This expanded release features lots of great alternates on the themes – and the tune "Clark & Guaraldi", and "Is It James Or Charlie (bonus mix with whistling)". (Jazz, Soundtracks) CD

A long-overdue issue of this jazzy Peanuts classic – music that's delighted ears for decades, yet never got the same sort of commercial release as Charlie Brown Christmas music! As with that work, the music here all comes from the genius of Vince Guaraldi – and given the early 70s recording of the tunes, Vince definitely has updated his style since the 60s – using Fender Rhodes at times, and even having an electric sensibility to his acoustic piano work too – a sense of spacing and timing that's totally great! The core combo features a young Tom Harrell on trumpet, plus Chuck Bennett on trombone, Seward McCain on bass, and Mike Clark on drums – a very cool jazzy group. Vince sings on the wonderful tune "Little Birdie", which has some larger arrangements – and other titles include "Is It James Or Charlie", "Thanksgiving Theme", "Charlie Brown Blues", "Peppermint Patty", "Linus & Lucy", and "Thanksgiving Interlude". This expanded release features lots of great alternates on the themes – and the tune "Clark & Guaraldi", and "Is It James Or Charlie (bonus mix with whistling)". (Jazz, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album

Over the years, we've come to realize that the best thing about the Peanuts cartoons isn't the actions of Charlie Brown and Lucy, but the wonderful music from Vince Guaraldi – perhaps the one aspect of the cartoons that's kept on giving over the years, and which we can proudly carry into adulthood! Vince's music is sublime – often simple, but groovy – a mix of rhythmic vamps and more lyrical passages that perfectly underscore the melancholy that graced the characters of Charles Schultz, and which perhaps defines them even better than the clunky stories or voiceovers on the screen. This set features all the best numbers from the glory days of those cartoons – mostly holiday numbers, but some other gems too – titles that include "Skating", "Little Birdie", "Baseball Theme", "Linus & Lucy", "Happiness Is", "Oh Good Grief", "Christmas Is Coming", "Great Pumpkin Waltz", "Thanksgiving Theme", and both vocal and instrumental versions of "Christmas Time Is Here". (Jazz, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album

A great little soundtrack from Herman's Hermits! The album's notable not only for the great pop vocal numbers – like "Mrs Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter", "Ooo She's Done It Again", and "There's A Kind Of Hush" – but even more so for 2 great instrumentals: "Daisy Chain I" and "Daisy Chain II". Track 1 features guitar and tabla, rolling together in a wild psychedelic instrumental groove – and track 2 is kind of a variation, also with a groovy mod instrumental groove! LP, Vinyl record album

An unusual little soundtrack to this obscure pre-Roots film about slavery – handled with some very nice touches from Gary McFarland, Bobby Scott, and Grady Tate! The music is penned by Scott, and is mostly in that hip blend of jazz and soul roots that he was using on some of his own 60s vocal work – but expanded a bit more here with the groovier styles of Skye Records, thanks to arrangements and conducting from Gary McFarland! The work's not as funky as you might expect, but is still plenty darn great – and there's a few instrumental numbers that are especially great here. Grady Tate sings on the vocal ones, often in the deep-voiced style of his own Skye albums – but with an approach that's a bit more down home and soul-based, which is a nice change – almost like Oscar Brown Jr at the best moments. A number of tracks are done in both instrumental and vocal versions – and titles include "Nightwind", "Slaves", "Black Lullabye", "Another Mornin", and "Pickin Cotton". (Jazz, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album

A groovy soundtrack to this hip surf film directed by Bruce Brown – filled with great little instrumentals that go way past the obvious! Brown had previously used jazz players for some of his films – including Bud Shank, who cut some great stuff for earlier soundtracks – but this set's got him working with The Sandals, a younger guitar-driven group with a cool style of scoring – partly surf instrumentals, but partly mod and groovy too! The Sandals move way past the stock surf riffs of chart surf groups – and they really do a great job with the changing moods and scenes of the film – fitting the many scenes of surfing on the screen. Titles include "Jet Black", "TR 6", "Scrambler", "6 Pak", "Driftin", "Good Greeves", and "Decoy". LP, Vinyl record album

A groovy little soundtrack – played by The Sandals, the same group who worked on the film The Endless Summer – director Bruce Brown's strange documentary about surfers around the world. This time around, the theme is skiers – and The Sandals more than rise to meet the challenge – crafting some tight and groovy 60s instrumentals, with lots of guitar riffing over crackling bass and drum parts. Check out the tracks "Soul Something" and "Porsche" for some real grooviness – and keep on grooving through "Ski Bum", "Yellow Dove", "Return From The Casino", and "Water & Stone". LP, Vinyl record album

A totally cool little set, and one that takes us back to the kind of commercials they used to play at the drive-in theaters between two different movies in a long double-feature! The tracks here are all short, playful little tunes with plenty of 60s elements – sometimes jazzy, sometimes groovy – extolling the virtues of popcorn, pizza, Pepsi, and anything else you might want to whet your whistle or tame your stomach during the course of a long cinematic experience! As you'd guess from Something Wild, a lot of great research went into this project – and there's some surprising artists in the lineup, doing work you never would have imagined. The whole thing feels like a package of mini audio cartoons – very cool throughout! LP, Vinyl record album

A weird little record from John Barry – the soundtrack to a 1963 television special recorded by Elizabeth Taylor at the height of her early popularity, and featuring Taylor reciting a variety of poems and speeches over music by Barry! There's a relatively high concept feel to the album – as Barry's backings are fairly string-laden and serious, penned to match the mood of Taylor's presentation of material written by William Wordsworth, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Pitt, Winston Churchill, and Queen Victoria. And although Taylor speaks on about half the record, the best tracks here are actually the instrumental ones – which have more of the depth of Barry's serious soundtrack work from the time, and manage to have their own sense of presence apart from the star quality of Liz on the set. Arrangements are by Johnnie Spence, and titles include "Elizabeth", "London Theme Jazz Waltz", "Queen Elizabeth At Tilbury", "Queen Victoria", "English Garden", "The Fire Of London", "Lovers & Browning", and "London At Dawn". CD

A weird little record from John Barry – the soundtrack to a 1963 television special recorded by Elizabeth Taylor at the height of her early popularity, and featuring Taylor reciting a variety of poems and speeches over music by Barry! There's a relatively high concept feel to the album – as Barry's backings are fairly string-laden and serious, penned to match the mood of Taylor's presentation of material written by William Wordsworth, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Pitt, Winston Churchill, and Queen Victoria. And although Taylor speaks on about half the record, the best tracks here are actually the instrumental ones – which have more of the depth of Barry's serious soundtrack work from the time, and manage to have their own sense of presence apart from the star quality of Liz on the set. Arrangements are by Johnnie Spence, and titles include "Elizabeth", "London Theme Jazz Waltz", "Queen Elizabeth At Tilbury", "Queen Victoria", "English Garden", "The Fire Of London", "Lovers & Browning", and "London At Dawn". LP, Vinyl record album