Charlie Brown and the gang get a musical holiday
The eloquent paean to composer Vince Guaraldi recently published in the New Yorker by jazz pianist and composer Ethan Iverson was — depending on your perspective — either an eye-opener or a welcome affirmation of timeworn truths. Guaraldi’s exuberant jazz score for “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” with its buoyant rhythms and cheerful, bebop-infused melodies, has become so familiar over the decades that it’s too easy to overlook the music’s virtues.
In addition to its other pleasures, the San Francisco Symphony’s holiday celebration of the Peanuts gang provides an opportunity to savor Guaraldi’s creation anew.