A long time ago, when I still used to watch TV cartoons, Peanuts was one of my favorites and the some of the reasons for that were the Schroeder playing Beethoven in his tiny piano and the soundtrack, a good jazz (although I didn’t know it at that time).
Sometimes ago, while researching some CD titles at CD Universe, I was watching David Benoit’s discography and I found some interesting items related to this subject. One of them is the one I present to you now, Here’s to You, Charlie Brown.
It is basically a work with Vince Guaraldi’s compositions that were written exclusively for the TV animated version, all of them in jazz style. David Benoit was also responsible for some of the soundtrack compositions, that’s the reason for the influence.
The tracks are beautifully performed by the high profile musicians. It is a CD to listen without skipping any track.
I confess here that some points caught my attention for this album, even without listening to it: It is a David Benoit work, it is from GRP, is produced by Tommy LiPuma and recorded/mixed by Bill Schnee.
Those parameters are far enough for me (and for some friends). While waitting this CD to arrive here, I was hoping that the responsible for the mastering was Doug Sax (Mastering Lab owner). Why? First because if this album is GRP, produced by T.LiPuma and recoded by Bill Schnee, the chance to have Doug Sax in crew is very high. Second, if the team is complete, the chance to be a great amazing high quality recording is also very high!
When I opened the liner notes and technical description, I could see Mastered by Doug Sax at Mastering Lab, exactly as I predicted.
The most interesting happened when I put the CD to play for the first time. The first track, Linus and Lucy, begins with the original version from the original tape, with a bad quality. It scared me. I thought that the entire CD would be like that, what would go against my stats explained above. After some seconds playing, a different piano tries to take place at the right channel. Finally, after a break, the band comes with its fullness, showing what Bill Schnee and Doug Sax are capable of. I got completely jaw-dropped and had to push the pause button and wait some instants to come back to the reality. For sure that was a trick from them to us. We, lucky guys that like to enjoy music in hi-fi equipment.
I read some reviews about this work, they are official reviews with critics to the use of the original tape (necrophilia? come on…). It’s clear that these people have limited reviewing capacity. They couldn’t interpret the message, after all, the musicians are not the only that do the art. That’s something I always say.
Do you believe that, after this review, you can leave your collection without this title?
Thank you!
Leonardo
The Image Of Sound 