nothin It’s A Charlie Brown Christmas At Three Sheets | New Haven Independent

It’s A Charlie Brown Christmas At Three Sheets

I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas today to get all hyped up,” Jerrod Cattey said on Tuesday night, right before he took to the stage with his trio to play the Vince Guaraldi Trio-composed soundtrack to that beloved cartoon, shown annually on television since the 1960s.

Three Sheets has been home to a jazz series since April of this year. It’s usually on the first and third Tuesdays of the month, but Nick DiMaria of Jazz Haven chose this second Tuesday for this special event. DiMaria thought it would be nice for the holidays” to play the music from Charlie Brown Christmas, and worked with Three Sheets manager Paul Angelo who, with DiMaria, wanted it to be a fundraiser for The Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness. The bar was collecting coats and warm clothing as well as monetary donations.

Tuesday marked the first time the Jerrod Cattey Trio played Charlie Brown Christmas in New Haven. According to Cattey, the trio had previously played it for about five years at Pizzeria Lauretano in Bethel and would be playing it at another Bethel location, Sasso’s, on the 21st of this month.

It seemed like a good way to get people to listen to jazz music,” Cattey added. Plus Guaraldi is the man.” (Guaraldi also composed the soundtrack to numerous other Charlie Brown television specials.)

The stage was decorated with the familiar Charlie Brown Christmas tree, with its spare and bare branches except for its one big red ball ornament. The trio, consisting of Cattey on drums, Kevin Smith on bass, and Darren Litzie on keyboards, began immediately with Charlie’s Blues,” a definitive bluesy but lively tune, after which Cattey joked, you know Charlie Brown had the blues.”

The trio mixed up selections from the soundtrack with other compositions as a tribute to Guaraldi, including Frieda (with the Naturally Curly Hair)” and The Great Pumpkin Waltz” from the other beloved television special It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (“Happy Halloween!” Cattey said afterward. Maybe you have a jack o’ lantern rotting on your front porch”). They even added the Theme from Black Orpheus” to the first set, which Cattey remarked ties into Vince Guaraldi because he covered it.” That song was a darker, moodier piece that became more uptempo as the song went on, but was still played in a style that paid homage to the composer and added to an already lively and lush set.

The selections from the soundtrack brought many smiles to the faces of the audience as well as the performers. The musicians kept it tight but playful, bringing the original cartoon to life and bringing back memories for the crowd. When they played Linus and Lucy” — the song that most people consider the Charlie Brown theme but is really named after that complex brother and sister duo — patrons of the bar walked in to the stage area, enticed by the vibrant piano. Many took out their phones to record it with big smiles on their faces.

Similar situations occurred with the playing of Christmas is Coming,” the song that accompanies the Peanuts gang doing their iconic dancing during their Christmas pageant rehearsal, as well as with the playing of Skating,” which the trio actually played once during each set. Cattey dedicated the second playing to someone in the audience, adding we don’t normally do this … wait, of course we do!”

Christmas Time is Here,” a song that is included on the soundtrack both with vocals and without, was played exquisitely and carried the essence of the melancholy and hopefulness the holiday can bring.

At the end of the first set, after playing Winter Wonderland,” Cattey jumped up from his drum set. Christmas jazz: it’s the best!” he said, with a big smile.

There was something special about hearing this music live — both familiar Christmas standards and others made standard as part of an iconic cartoon. This reporter easily recalled eagerly awaiting A Charlie Brown Christmas each year as a child (and yes, even as an adult), and was admittedly moved to tears more than once during this performance. It was fitting that songs meant to accompany a special about a child trying to find the meaning of Christmas (and also in life) in all of the pomp and circumstance were played with such beauty and depth, for such a worthy cause. It hopefully reminded those who heard the trio that, with the rush of the holidays or not, we are all in this together.

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