Stocking stuffers

We’ve an embarrassment of holiday-themed riches this month, starting with not just one, but two terrific big band covers of the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Richmond, Virginia, is blessed with a full-blown swing band fronted by bassist/arranger Andrew Randazzo, which performs as the R4nd4zzo Big Band. The 15-piece unit boasts four trumpets, three trombones, four reeds and a rhythm section of keyboards (Jacob Ungerleider), guitar (Alan Parker), bass (Randazzo) and drums (DJ Harrison). The ensemble presented a swinging tribute to Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Christmas to a packed house at Richmond’s Vagabond on December 18, 2017; the performance was recorded and released as a Bandcamp digital album a month later.

Can’t imagine why it took so long for me to find it; this album definitely shouldn’t be missed.

Aside from his inventive arrangements, Randazzo also has a cheeky sense of humor; the classic holiday tunes and Guaraldi originals have been given fresh titles that occasionally require a bit of thought … such as “SK8N,” which features unison brass on the familiar melody, following Randazzo’s tasty solo bass introduction. The pace picks up, with Toby Whitaker and JC Kuhl delivering cool solos on (respectively) bass trombone and baritone sax.

The set actually kicks off with “Tannenbomb,” which begins in gentle Guaraldi fashion; the full band then sets a mid-tempo pace for sleek solos on piano and brass, against Randazzo’s bass comping. The ensemble returns to the melody and then concludes with a double-time burst of speed. The mid-tempo “Drum Closet” (“My Little Drum”) is dominated by groovy rolling percussion, the melody taken by brass against Parker’s guitar comping. Parker similarly dominates the melody in a thoughtful cover of “Black Friday” (“Christmas Time Is Here”), and he also gets plenty of exposure — notably during a lengthy bridge solo — in “Whose Baby Is This!?”

A few arrangements may challenge Guaraldi purists, starting with an unusually contemplative, mid-tempo reading of “Linus, Single Again,” dominated by Ungerleider’s sweet piano solo and some cool rhythm work. But the stand-out, for exploratory ambition, is “Xmas on a Thursday,” a deconstructed handling of “Christmas Is Coming,” dominated by funky bass and percussion, a barely recognized melody in a minor key, and an acid rock electric guitar solo that soars into outer space … after which the track concludes with a traditional solo piano reading of “Fur Elise.” Far out, man!

The set finishes with a gentle reading of “Chestnuts,” featuring guest vocalist Roger Carroll; Randazzo’s acoustic bass solo at the bridge is particularly lush, backed by unison brass comping. The horns takes over the melody when Carroll returns to croon the iconic tune to a close. At which point, a very good time clearly has been had by all.

(One minor issue: I rather doubt Peanuts Worldwide, Fantasy/Concord and all others concerned would be pleased by this set’s digital album cover!)

The Peanuts Concerto debuts!

Composer Dick Tunney, left, holds his 70-page
score as pianist Jeffrey Biegel prepares to join the
members of Orchestra Kentucky for the afternoon
rehearsal of Tunney's Peanuts Concerto

It has been quite a journey.

We broke the news about Dick Tunney’s commissioned Peanuts Concerto-to-be back on January 30, 2018, and followed with updates as the project progressed. (Click on Peanuts Concerto, in the labels below this entry, to read all previous installments.)

By late summer, the premiere date had been set for March 23, 2019, with Orchestra Kentucky, under the baton of conductor/music director Jeff Reed, at the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center (SKyPAC) in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The keyboard soloist: newly minted Grammy Award-recognized pianist/composer Jeffrey Biegel (for having performed as a soloist on Kenneth Fuchs’ Spiritualist Piano Concerto, which took this year’s Grammy for Best Classical Compendium).

Tunney and his wife Melodie were on hand, of course: both for the evening performance, and the earlier afternoon rehearsal. Who could blame him? The Peanuts Concerto represented a year of his life, and now he had the opportunity to share this newborn child with the world at large.

First, though, he spent the afternoon helping the orchestra fine-tune the performance.

Tunney and conductor Jeff Reed, taking a break
prior to the evening performance.

“When I’m able to attend a ‘first’ rehearsal,” Tunney explained, “I’ll typically sit in the house with a pencil and some Post-it Notes, and make notations on the score, of corrections or other things that need to be addressed. There were a few things to fix, but — largely — what was on the page, was what I wanted.

“The bigger purpose for sitting through the rehearsal is to help with interpretation. During the first run-through, some tempos were a little quick, and the orchestra lost Guaraldi’s ‘groove.’ The bottom line for classical musicians playing jazz is that it must ‘feel’ right. Much of that can be accomplished by ensuring that the tempos are correct. There’s so much nuance to jazz, and when juxtaposed with the precision of performing classical music, the result can make for some interesting moments.”

All too quickly, it was time to don formal attire for the concerto’s world premiere.

“Jeff [Reed] asked me to introduce the piece,” Tunney continued. “I gave a short introduction to Peanuts and Charles Schulz, and then a few sentences about Guaraldi. I concluded by talking about the task of juxtaposing iconic jazz piano with the symphony orchestra.”

The performance was well attended. “SKyPAC seats 1,800, and I estimate it was 75 percent full. That’s a very respectable audience for Bowling Green.”

And it all comes together! Jeff Reed, standing in front of the orchestra and screen,
conducts the Peanuts Concerto while soloist Jeffrey Biegel performs at the piano.

Patrons — and Tunney — enjoyed an unexpected bonus. Thanks to some necessary behind-the-scenes permissions, Peanuts Worldwide allowed the use of still images of Schulz artwork, which were displayed at appropriate moments during each of the concerto’s three movements. “At least half a dozen times, when an image appeared with the appropriate song, you could hear the audience ooh and ahhh. It was quite touching.”

Indeed, everybody clearly enjoyed the performance.

“The evening went well,” Tunney enthused. “I was extremely pleased with the interpretation, and the entire performance. The Second Movement was absolutely breathtaking, and the Christmas Movement was charming beyond my hopes. Jeffrey [Biegel] played with such artistry and musicality, and the familiar melodies brought a smile to every face.

“The audience applauded between each of the movements … and you know, in some stuffy classical circles, there’s always the question of whether to do that. I choose to call this an enthusiastic response, along with an immediate standing ovation at the conclusion, with a curtain call for conductor and pianist.

“The legacy of Vince Guaraldi’s music was honored, and placed on the proper pedestal.”

It's almost concerto time!

At last, a proper press release! (You'd think one would have appeared long before now...)

Reprinted here, in its entirety:

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Lee Mendelson Film Productions announces the world premiere of the first-ever Peanuts Concerto for Piano and Orchestra based on the legendary music of Vince Guaraldi, arranged by Grammy-winning composer, Dick Tunney, featuring pianist Jeffrey Biegel with Orchestra Kentucky, led by Music Director, Jeff Reed. 

This moving arrangement sets Guaraldi's classic music from the Peanuts specials, into a three-movement work for piano and orchestra. It will be a wonderful introduction for families to hear the jazz writings of the late Vince Guaraldi, in a 21st century symphonic landscape.

Vince Guaraldi wrote and performed the music for the first 15 animated Peanuts specials, until his untimely death in 1976. The album A Charlie Brown Christmas is the second most popular jazz album in history, with more than 4 million copies sold.  

Guaraldi started writing music for 1963's never-aired documentary A Boy Named Charlie Brown, which Lee Mendelson produced. When Mendelson, animator Bill Melendez and Charles Schulz created A Charlie Brown Christmas, they turned to their friend Guaraldi, to write the music for the special. A Charlie Brown Christmas has aired every Christmas season since 1965, and the music from that special has become a timeless part of our culture and the holiday season.

Guaraldi wrote the music for the next 14 animated specials, and some of those themes have been incorporated into this concerto.  

Lee Mendelson Film Productions has been producing television and films since 1964, winning 11 Emmys along with 45 nominations, 4 Peabody awards, and Oscar and Grammy nominations. Lee Mendelson Film Productions is the publisher of Guaraldi's musical works. 

The premiere takes place at 7:30 p.m. March 23, 2019, at the SKYPaC in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Biegel is one of the most respected pianists of our time, performing and recording classic repertoire and new works in contemporary classical, and works of all styles. His performance of Kenneth Fuchs' Piano Concerto: Spiritualist helped the recording win the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium, alongside the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by JoAnn Falletta, and produced by Tim Handley. Biegel is professor of piano at Brooklyn College, and has commissioned many composers to write new works for piano and orchestra.

Tunney and his wife, Melodie, have received 10 Dove Awards, and a Grammy Award for “How Excellent Is Thy Name,” recorded by Larnelle Harris. They have recorded eight albums together, and Dick has recorded five solo instrumental albums. The couple has penned more than 150 songs, many recorded by other Christian artists.  

Maestro Jeff Reed has conducted the orchestras of Alabama, Augusta, Charleston, Detroit, Knoxville, Louisville, Memphis, Nashville, Omaha, Phoenix, Portland (ME), Quad Cities (IA), Sacramento, South Bend and Winston-Salem. He has twice appeared with the Royal Philharmonic at London's Royal Albert Hall, at the specific request of Neil Sedaka.

Visit these websites for further information:

Jeffrey Biegel: www.jeffreybiegel.com

Jeffrey Reed: www.jeffreyreed.info

Dick Tunney: www.tunneymusic.com

Orchestra Kentucky: www.orchestrakentucky.com

Lee Mendelson Film Productions, Inc.: www.mendelsonproductions.com

Concerto-izing, Episode 4

The all-important manuscript, in its completed glory!

We’re rapidly approaching the world premiere of Nashville-based musician, composer and arranger Dick Tunney’s commissioned Peanuts Concerto. It’ll debut Saturday, March 23, with Orchestra Kentucky; the performance will take place in Bowling Green, Kentucky, under the baton of conductor/music director Jeff Reed, with Jeffrey Biegel at the piano.

Dick has been kind enough to keep me apprised of the concerto’s evolution, from its genesis a little more than a year ago. You can read more in previous blog entries, here, here and here.

I’ll turn the rest of this post over to Dick, who — understandably — is delighted to have completed this project, and is extremely pleased over how it has turned out.

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The final decisions on song selection, sequence of songs — and the like — changed considerably during this yearlong process. The obvious hero in this was Vince Guaraldi, and his creative fingerprints are (hopefully) all over this work. Weaving the jazz harmonies into a classical orchestral setting was challenging, but there are plenty of “fragments” that really did lend themselves nicely to the symphony. 

The songs included in some fashion are: “Linus and Lucy,” which actually appears in some form in all three movements; “Thanksgiving Theme”; “Red Baron”; “Oh, Good Grief!”; Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique (tipping our cap to Schroeder); “Happiness Is”; “Rain, Rain Go Away”; “Skating”; “Christmas Time Is Here”; and “O Tannenbaum.” Some songs were chosen for their popularity and visibility; others were selected for their musical content, as juxtaposed with the orchestra in a classical setting. (A prime example is “Rain, Rain Go Away.”). I researched all of this pretty thoroughly, watched several television specials, and scoured the landscape for Guaraldi recordings of everything we could get our hands on.

The office studio where the magic takes place: Nary a quill or inkpot to be seen!

One of my original thoughts was to make the middle movement — historically the slower movement, in a piano concerto — the Christmas movement. However, when all was said and done, the Christmas movement became the third and final movement: the “finale,” if you will. This third movement also has been constructed so that an orchestra with pianist can perform it as a stand-alone piece.  

I teased “Linus and Lucy” in three or four different places, before finally concluding the entire work with that most iconic of Peanuts music.

This has been more than a year in the making, and to be at this point seems surreal. Last Thursday, I sent the final score and individual parts to the orchestra office in Kentucky, and was in contact with the Peanuts folks — and Jeffrey — about delivery of the final files. I walked downstairs from my studio around 3:00 p.m. that day, looked at my wife, and thrust both fists into the air. 

She knew.  

The final piece of the puzzle is inserting piano fingerings into the main score. Jeffrey has been practicing on this for a couple of months, and has sent me hand-written fingerings, a few note changes and some phrasing and articulation edits. These final elements will come together this week.

My wife and I will attend the rehearsal (my score in hand) as well as the March 23 premiere.  

Hopefully, this 21-minute piece will bring smiles to the faces of those who are familiar with Guaraldi, and the Peanuts television specials, and — better still! — will introduce some fantastic music to audiences of a generation likely removed from the Peanuts comic strips. 

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One last quick note from the site-master. As of Sunday, Jeffrey Biegel has become a Grammy-recognized pianist/composer. He performed on the Grammy Award-winning recording for Best Classical Compendium, as a soloist on Kenneth Fuchs’ Spiritualist Piano Concerto, on the Naxos label. Biegel commissioned the concerto, which resulted in several performances and this recording, with the London Symphony Orchestra. The actual Grammy Awards were presented to conductor JoAnn Falletta and producer Tim Handley; Biegel received a certificate as an artist on the recording.

Ergo, Jeffrey will be sliding directly from a classical Grammy triumph to an exciting new work honoring Guaraldi’s Peanuts compositions. Quite a heady way to start the year!

Concerto-izing, Episode 3

We’re long overdue for an update on Nashville-based musician, composer and arranger Dick Tunney's commission to create a Peanuts Concerto that will morph Guaraldi’s most recognizable themes into a symphonic fantasy for solo piano and orchestra.

(You can read about the genesis of this project here and here.)

The delay was prompted by the reality of a musician’s life: the arrival of another project with a tighter timeline that superseded Dick’s efforts on behalf of Guaraldi. Dick had to set Vince aside in order to complete a three-movement piano concerto based on the songs of Burt Bacharach, which dominated his schedule earlier this year. It premiered May 19 with Jeffrey Biegel at the piano: the same gentleman who also will perform the Peanuts Concerto when it premieres — as currently is planned — in March 2019 at Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Dick subsequently dove back into Guaraldi’s oeuvre, and we exchanged several notes during the past summer, as various Peanuts tunes were considered for each of the three movements. Mostly, Dick has wanted to ensure that he gives at least a passing nod to any and all “Guaraldi Peanuts classics.” (And boy, there’s an open question: How deep is the list of “songs that shouldn’t be left behind,” bearing in mind the structural requirements of an orchestral concerto?)

At any rate, Dick just surfaced long enough to report on progress, so I’ll turn the rest of this post over to him:

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On October 1, I finished the piano score for the first movement. The creative tightrope that I’ve been walking for these past couple of months is to keep the jazz harmonic structure, as well as the genius of Mr. Guaraldi’s improvisation, and let them co-exist with the symphony instrumentation and classical attitude. This it the third piano concerto whose commission has found my desk, and at this point it has been the biggest challenge. Honoring the legacy of such wonderful jazz piano, juxtaposed with Jeffrey’s astonishing classical gifts, has been a daunting task.  I’ve chosen to include the “Thanksgiving Theme,” “Red Baron” and “Oh, Good Grief” in the opening movement, with a couple of “Linus and Lucy” teasers/fragments just for fun.

The second movement piano score is underway, and I’m tipping the musical cap to Schroeder; this movement will begin with a piece of Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique, which then morphs nicely into “Happiness Is.” A couple of final song decisions, and hopefully the piano score will be finished in short order. After that, the orchestration.

We’ve chosen to save the “Christmas movement” for last, as the final movement of the concerto. It’s finished, piano and orchestra. All of the Charlie Brown Christmas favorites are present: “Skating,” “Linus and Lucy,” “O Tannenbaum” and “Christmas Time Is Here.”

All in all, I believe that this concerto will become an audience favorite, and will be performed many times beyond its March 2019 premiere.

Concerto-izing, Episode 2

Work on the newly commissioned Peanuts Concerto has proceeded smoothly, and Dick Tunney has kindly paused on occasion, in order to keep us up to date. (Read about the genesis of this project here.)

When last Dick checked in, he reported being “almost finished” with the second (Christmas) movement. “I did finish the piano portion, and sent it to Jeffrey [Biegel],” he said. “Lots of exclamation points and thumbs up from him.”

As of this moment, the piece’s premiere is scheduled for March 2019, “but there could well be a prior performance,” Dick adds, “depending on when the work is completed and ready for the stage.”

I was curious about his decision to begin with the middle movement (having naively assumed that one works on such a project from start to finish). He kindly sent a marvelously detailed reply, and I’ll turn the rest of this post over to him:

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I began with this movement because I’m most familiar with the songs in the Christmas special. As I get to the end of this concerto, there will be times when I’ll be slogging my way through, and I never want to be doing that at the beginning of a project. Pace and momentum tend to keep my interest up; once I get a good bit of a piece under my belt, it’s always nice to look back and see the progress made.  

The plan to have a Christmas movement was there from the beginning, and building it to be a pull-out/stand-alone movement also was present from the outset. Placing it in the middle of the concerto probably is 90% in stone at this point, but I’m not ready for the cement to harden on that idea.  

The previous concerto that I did stayed pretty closely to typical concert form for a three-movement work: fast/slow/fast. As it stands right now, the Christmas movement isn’t exclusively slow. The anchor (of course!) is “Linus and Lucy,” which will appear in some form or fashion as a theme — or theme fragment — in each of the three movements.  

Vince in a symphony hall!

This should be a very exciting year for Guaraldi fans.

Nashville-based musician, composer and arranger Dick Tunney has been commissioned to create what is being dubbed a Peanuts Concerto: an ambitious work that will morph Guaraldi’s most recognizable themes into a symphonic fantasy for solo piano and orchestra.

Jeffrey Biegel

The project was spearheaded by Tunney’s colleague Jeffrey Biegel, a celebrated New York-based pianist/composer whose accomplishments and accolades would tax even the most encyclopedic biographer.

“He’s a tremendous player,” Tunney notes, during a recent chat, “an off-the-charts, crazy-good Juilliard artist. When he gets something under his hands, he owns it.”

“I read an interview with Charles Schulz’s son Craig, back in 2013 or so,” Biegel explains, picking up the narrative. “Craig was struck by something that worried his father, who at one point wondered aloud, ‘Do you think they’ll remember me?’

“Well, in his case, of course. But the thing is, everything you’ve done, when you pass, it’s over. People will think less about you, and what you’ve done, if you’re not around any more. I sent Craig an email, and told him that really hit home, because not only should Schulz and Peanuts go on, but what about the music? Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts music is either locked up in those specials for eternity, or they’re only heard in orchestral versions usually adapted from the Christmas special.

“There’s not a new performance work at all, based on Guaraldi’s Peanuts music ... and certainly not a concerto for piano and orchestra. So I’ve been commissioned to take the music from those TV specials, and place them into a musical work that orchestras can book and present to audiences.”

Biegel has developed an artistic business model that has been successful for 20 years: He initiates projects with composers; raises all the money from donors and orchestras, to pay the composer to write a concerto for him; and then he (Biegel) gets to play it with the orchestras involved.