Sixty years ago, pianist/composer Vince Guaraldi (1928-1976) released the album that would make him a star (and a Grammy Award winner): Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus. To celebrate the album’s 60th anniversary, Craft Recordings is re-releasing it in a Deluxe Expanded Edition featuring 16 bonus tracks, including 12 previously unreleased selections, with outtakes and alternate takes of nearly every track on the album. A two-CD and digital package (in both standard and hi-res audio) is scheduled for a Nov. 18 release; a three-LP version will follow on Feb. 24, 2023, along with a Small Batch edition of 3,000 numbered copies of the original eight-track album, cut from the original analog tapes and pressed on 180-gram vinyl.
JazzTimes is honored to premiere one of those previously unreleased selections: an alternate take of Luiz Bonfá’s “Manhã de Carnaval.” As on the Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus album, Guaraldi is supported by bassist Monte Budwig and drummer Colin Bailey.
Originally released in April 1962, Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus was inspired by Marcel Camus’ Palme d’Or-winning 1959 film Black Orpheus, which featured a storied soundtrack by the Brazilian composers Antônio Carlos Jobim and Bonfá. Although the album was well received, the track from it that won the most attention had nothing to do with Camus’ film and wasn’t even Brazilian; it was a Vince Guaraldi original, “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” which ended up spending 19 weeks on Billboard‘s Top 100 chart, peaking at No. 22, not a bad ranking at all for a jazz instrumental. Guaraldi’s time in the spotlight—which would include a productive collaboration with guitarist Bola Sete and the timeless soundtracks to 14 Charlie Brown animated TV specials—had begun.
For more information on Vince Guaraldi, visit his page on Concord’s website.
