PREVIEW
Tales of a Charlie Brown Christmas
Jerry Granelli Trio
Saturday, Dec. 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Arden Theatre
5 St. Anne Street
Tickets: $40. Call 780-459-1542 or visit www.ticketmaster.ca
For some, winter holidays are the most wonderful time of year. But they aren't quite complete without A Charlie Brown Christmas, the 1965 animated television special based on Charles Schultz’s comic strip, Peanuts.
This year, St. Albert enjoys a double dose of the true meaning of Christmas as the Jerry Granelli Trio return for another magical night of Tales of a Charlie Brown Christmas.
From his Halifax home, Granelli explains the Arden Theatre concert on Saturday, Dec. 15, is a compilation of stories about the half-hour special.
It is accompanied by classics such as Linus and Lucy, Christmas Time is Here and Skating. A stage screen behind the musicians plays clips from A Charlie Brown Christmas adding another layer of familiarity.
Granelli calls the original animation “a perfect piece of art,” something that does not need to be refreshed for contemporary audiences.
“You can’t change the elements. What works is that people remember it. But when we do it, it’s fresh and exciting because we do a real jazz concert,” said Granelli.
Back in the 1960s, the drummer was a fixture on San Francisco’s hard bop scene. Pianist Vince Guaraldi was tapped to write a jazz score for a new Christmas animation commissioned by Coca Cola, and Guaraldi invited Granelli to round out his group.
The plot was simple. Down in the dumps Charlie Brown is depressed about the commercialism he sees. Lucy suggests he direct a neighbourhood Christmas play, but despite his best efforts, he is ignored and mocked by the other kids.
Charlie Brown goes to pick out a tree and selects a forlorn little sapling that droops when he decorates it. Again the kids pick apart Charlie Brown’s tree and he walks away.
Linus then recites a short biblical verse about the true meaning of Christmas and the gang decides they’ve been too hard on Charlie Brown. The Peanuts gang unites to decorate the tree, sing a few carols and celebrate the season as friends.
The absence of a laugh track (common in the United States at the time) in addition to its tone, pacing, jazzy score and animation led CBS producers to predict it would be a disaster.
“CBS hated the idea. They weren’t gonna have children tell people what Christmas was all about. And Coca Cola to their credit said, ‘No, we paid for the time and it goes.’”
A Charlie Brown Christmas went on to become a triple platinum holiday classic selling four million copies.
“It was the spirit of Charlie Brown’s Christmas. It wasn’t hyped or phoney. Everyone who did it was in it because they believed in it. It was the perfect group of people. If you changed even one person, it would have been different.”
Despite the massive commercial success, Granelli was only paid a $68 musician’s fee.
“I couldn’t touch the material for 48 years,” said Granelli. “A few years ago, there was a man and his grandchild who recognized me on a beach in Cape Breton, and told me how much the music meant to him. That moment I realized how deeply I had touched people.”
Longtime friends pianist Chris Gestrin and bassist Simon Fisk accompany Granelli, while music teacher Taya Alexander’s vocal students join the trio for several songs.
