It's hard to write a biography of a performer without going through the laundry list of where he/she performed. Although the author has made an attempt at shedding light on Guaraldi's personality by sharing some short anecdotes, the text still sounded like a laundry list. On the bright side, the author has done a very through job of finding out what Guaraldi did each night of his life.

An exhaustive history of the professional career of a solid, if minor, west coast jazz pianist who will be remembered primarily for his "Peanuts" scores. One appreciates the author's thoroughness but is Guaraldi worth the effort? ( )

Most of us know Vince Guaraldi as the guy who wrote and performed the piano scores to the Peanuts television specials. The Linus and Lucy theme is forever stored in the memories of countless listeners, whether they know it by name or not. Derrick Bang’s biography, Vince Guaraldi at the Piano, offers an in-depth description of Guaraldi’s multifaceted musical career - a history most are unaware of. Unfortunately, Bang’s outline is a bit overdone, becoming tedious for the reader who was looking forward to a more complete life history. However, to the jazz enthusiast or musician, it is a great chronicle of Guaraldi’s musical career.

Bang does cover some of Guaraldi’s history and influences. In particular, he takes an interesting look inside the music business at that time, including the development and nature of contracts between record companies and performers. Guaraldi was an active musician and writer during a period when the recording companies received the lion’s share of the artists’ proceeds. Very little went to the artist. For example, Guaraldi received a mere 5% share of all his earnings – an inequitable sum, comparatively.

Overall, this is a well written study of Mr. Guaraldi’s musical career. However, it is not for one who is looking for a comprehensive biography. It is more like an expanded provenance. It is an excellent chronicle of a musician who aspired to reach us, not by writing hits, but rather standards - music that feels comfortable and familiar, “the first time you hear it.” Fans of David Benoit, George Winston and Bola Sete will find much of interest in this book, as well.

A post note on behalf of the author and for others reference: the classical guitarist Andre Segovia is erroneously referred to as “Andrew”; and, the State University of New York at Potsdam is said to be in Syracuse where, in fact, it is located considerably more to the North in Potsdam. ( )

"Vince Guaraldi at the Piano" by Derrick Bang is a must-read for any "Peanuts" fan and if you like jazz history, that's even better. A factual memoir, this book presents a who's who of jazz icons during Guaraldi's lifetime (1928-1976) as it followed his gigs through the years. Bang had a lot of research to do! ( )

If I average my various reactions to this book, I think I come out with four stars.
I would call myself a "jazz newbie", just starting to pay more attention to the music mostly labeled jazz. I recognized the name Vince Guaraldi as the composer of the Peanuts music, but didn't know anything else about him prior to reading this book. His first major hit (in the early 60's) was Cast Your Fate to the Wind. Since I was unfamiliar with it (based only on the title) I went to Amazon, and listened to the clip off of a greatest hits album. I was stunned to recognize the music, even though 50 years has gone by since it was popular – the song won a 1963 Grammy. I then bought the album, which was handy to have as a companion to the book. A smart marketing move would be to package the greatest hits album with the book, but I think the audience for the book is going to be too thin to make that practical. The book is going to appeal to anyone interested in the history of jazz – specifically the west coast/San Francisco jazz scene. The amount of information about the jazz clubs – especially the hungry i and the Blackhawk is impressive. Because Guaraldi got his start as a sideman with Cal Tjader and Woody Herman, there is also large volume of information about those bands as well. My problem with the book itself was that for much of it it read like no more than a listing of Guaraldi's various gigs. Here's a random sample of the writing – "Tjader once again took advantage of available talent and entered a New York studio on Nov. 20 to record a nonet that included Guaraldi on piano, Bobby Rodriguez on bass, Jose "Chombo" Silva on tenor sax, Gerald Sanfino on alto and flute, Kant on gourd and cowbell(!), Peraza on conga and bongos, Ramon "Mongo" Santamaria seconding on conga, and Willie Bobo on timbales. The resulting three tracks ran much longer than anything recorded in Chicago, ranging from six to eight minutes each. " The amount of detail/trivia in the book itself is incredible, and that's not including the 60 pages of notes/discography and index. It made for some pretty tedious reading, and when I was all through I didn't feel like I knew much at all about Vince Guaraldi himself. Guaraldi died at age 47, in 1976, and the author, Derrick Bang, says in the preface "You won't find many details about Guaraldi's personal life here: in part because I loathe tell-all biographies; and, yes, in part because it would have been impossible to obtain such information, at this late remove." While I wasn't looking for a "tell-all" style bio, I would have liked to read more about Vince himself, and skipped some of the massive detail about every gig he played.
Still, the book brought me to hear and know Guaraldi's music much better than I had before reading it, and that's worth a five star rating. ( )