2010 marked the 45th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas on television. 
It was the first Peanuts animated special and it launched an empire. Critics have suggested that without the Vince Guaraldi jazzed up sound track that tv special never would have had the same impact.
The tv special, the sound track, all of that almost never happened. A Charlie Brown Christmas is the result of a perfect storm of circumstance and talent.
Drummer Jerry Granelli grew up in San Francisco but now lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
He is the last surviving member of the Vince Guaraldi trio that recorded the now classic soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas. 
Jerry Granelli and producer Colin MacKenzie decided that it was time to head back to San Francisco and remember how that sound track came together 45 years ago.
And FYI: Derrick Bang's new book: Vince Guaraldi at the Piano- 
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=42078&pg=1



Good Grief its Serendipity Vince Guaraldi

The Memory Project: In this episode we look back at D-Day.

The goal of the project is to create an unprecedented account of Canada’s participation in the Second World War. The Memory Project: Stories of the Second World War is offering every living Second World War veteran in Canada the opportunity to share their memories through recorded interviews.  We edit a clip from the interview and put it up on our web site along with photographs of wartime memorabilia and make them available to you at www.thememoryproject.com

On the 6th of June 1944, after almost a year of special assault and combined operations training, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade were part of the Allied forces which attacked the Normandy coast of France in Operation Overlord. 

The Memory Project :: NORMANDY ::  D - Day

There are points in our lives, which seem like highlights. 1987 was one for me, which set me on the path to this recording.
Moved from Seattle to Nova Scotia, Teaching in Berlin,– doing my first two cds as a leader, meeting producer Lee Townsend, recording the cd.
“A song I heard Buddy Sing”— people entering my life. Basically another new chapter unfolding.
An unknown desire to create a body of work as leader composer, a great inspiration was the work of Max Roach.- I remember seeing Max Roach in New York City just before he died in 2007. I walked into Carroll Music on 55th and could not believe my eyes. At 83, that man had rented a room and was in there…practicing.

When I look back from here I see 20 recordings.
Each of these people and places had a different yet profound effect
in getting me here.

Why do I write music? How do I write music?
If I could stop, maybe I would…
I absorb what is around me, I write for the musicians that I am playing with at the time; their voices, their sound finds its way into my head. I write what I hear.
It is all about the story for me, allowing the music to tell me a tale, a libretto that I have to work with.
Bill Frisell and Robben Ford, I could just taste the music they could make together then Michael Ondaatje’s work inspired the recording “A Song I thought I heard Buddy Sing”. There were these narratives and these sounds. My Sandhills Reunion recording went the other way—an Octet with words and stories by Rinde Eckert. I was writing an aural screenplay for an expansive landscape.

This latest recording was me hearing the sound of Mike Murley and Dani Oore together, two tenors. Over a winter I began to write. I was playing weekly sessions with a group including Andrew MacKelvie – alto sax and Andrew Jackson – trombone. Two young improvisers living in Halifax. Great horn arrangements are always bouncing off the walls in my head.
All this came two or three years after I formed my first trio with Simon Fisk on bass and Dani Oore. I realized that they/we, became the foundation. The trio allows me to create and write for this always-expanding orchestra that has been haunting me for almost thirty years.

I have always loved playing with Mike Murley and here was a chance to go into the studio to create something together. When we were recording each of the players came to the music with their own voice, but it was always there to serve the music. They seamlessly combined what I had written with inspired improvisation. And I brought together two generations of Halifax horns.
We worked hard and we found a balance, that place between too tight and too loose.
This is What I Hear Now


07 The Swamp (feat. Mike Murley, Dani Oore, Andrew Mckelvey, Andrew Jackson & Simon Fisk)

06 Another Place (feat. Mike Murley, Dani Oore, Andrew Mckelvey, Andrew Jackson & Simon Fisk)

05 Dance For Me (feat. Mike Murley, Dani Oore, Andrew Mckelvey, Andrew Jackson & Simon Fisk)

04 Mystery (feat. Mike Murley, Dani Oore, Andrew Mckelvey, Andrew Jackson & Simon Fisk)

03 Walter White (feat. Mike Murley, Dani Oore, Andrew Mckelvey, Andrew Jackson & Simon Fisk)

02 Run Daddy Run (feat. Mike Murley, Dani Oore, Andrew Mckelvey, Andrew Jackson & Simon Fisk)

01 Prologue (feat. Mike Murley, Dani Oore, Andrew Mckelvey, Andrew Jackson & Simon Fisk)

George Hodgson was Canada's first Gold medalist, its first double gold medalist and took part in the last Olympics that actually handed out real gold medals: the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. He was considered by many to be the greatest swimmer in Canadian history. He was a McGill student who played waterpolo and swam. Most of his swimming  training  took place in a small lake in the Laurentians- Lac Brulé. George Hodgson, Canada's only Olympic gold medal winner in swimming till 1984.

OLYMPICS 1912: Tom Hodgson talks about his Olympian Father: George Hodgson

I lived in halifax, Nova Scotia Canada for 17 years. For 7 of those years I lived in a house that had a gospel church bordering on its back yard. In the summer they would throw open the windows. Every Tuesday and Thursday night and every Sunday morning my back yard would be filled with music. It was not until the last few months of my life in Halifax that I actually went over and paid a visit to my neighbours. Here is my story.

My Gospel Church

A CBC Radio Documentary: Early 1970’s Montreal was chaotic: bombs went off, people were kidnapped and killed, the War Measures Act was put into effect and the English-French conflict had escalated to the precipice of a full on revolution. By 1976 things had completely turned around. The Olympics came to town; Montreal was officially a world-recognized cosmopolitan city. And by 1979 Hollywood stars, New York glitterati, politicians, royalty and the jet set were all beating a path to Montreal’s legendary disco clubs to dance the night away. What happened? Suddenly Montreal had platinum status admission to the VIP lounge of coolest of the cool disco cities right alongside Paris, New York, Berlin and LA. For a brief moment in time, the remnants of a cultural revolution, new wealth, and corruption were joined by sex and drugs and the pounding beats of disco for never ending nights let loose on its dance floors. 

First Broadcast on CBC December 2009

FUNKYTOWN-The Montreal Disco Era

Podcast produced for The Memory Project on Canada's involvement in the battle of the Atlantic during The Second World War. The Memory Project is attempting to provide every living Second World War veteran with the opportunity to share their memories through oral interviews and digitized artifacts and memorabilia.
http://www.thememoryproject.com.

Battle of The Atlantic

music and musicians. film, video and audio documentaries/Podcasts.

Colin C MacKenzie

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