There, Bang met Guaraldi’s adult son David, and the pianist’s mother, who had kept extensive scrapbooks with newspaper clippings documenting her son’s musical career. In the 1990s, Bang’s postings about Guaraldi drew the attention of Santa Cruz-based pianist George Winston, who was preparing to record an album of Guaraldi’s compositions (“Linus and Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi,” 1996).īang attended one of Winston’s concerts in Santa Rosa in 1998, and was invited backstage. “And I began to realize that there was very little written about him, anywhere.”Īfter the essay, Bang started working on a Guaraldi discography and a biographical timeline, with as much information as he was able to gather. Eventually, Bang decided to prepare an essay about the composer. “It’s one of those things I look back on with regret.”īang’s ongoing interest in the “Peanuts” comic strip and its creator Charles Schulz (Bang has written two books on the subject) kept bringing him back to Guaraldi. “Talk about missed opportunities,” Bang said. “But I figured there was no hurry,” Bang said, “because he wasn’t that old.”īut then Guaraldi died unexpectedly in February 1976, at age 47, attributed to a heart attack or an aortic aneurism. However Bang didn’t have a car, which made getting to one of the pianist’s gigs a bit of a challenge. Guaraldi, a native San Franciscan, appeared regularly in Bay Area jazz clubs. “When I came to UC Davis as a student in 1973, I had the intention of heading to the Bay Area one day and seeing Guaraldi perform,” Bang recalled. As a teen, “I bought some of his albums,” Bang said, “and I realized that he had worked as a sideman with a lot of different folks” - including several of Cal Tjader’s combos.
9, 1965,” Bang said.Ī boy at the time, Bang was attracted to the original music that Guaraldi had written and recorded for the show. “I’ve been a fan since the first ‘Peanuts’ TV special - ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ - aired on Dec. in downtown DavisĪuthor Derrick Bang - known to Davis Enterprise readers for his many movie reviews - first noticed the music of jazz pianist/composer Vince Guaraldi a long time ago. What: Author Derrick Bang will sign copies of his new book, “Vince Guaraldi at the Piano”
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