Recently moving to San Francisco, I’ve been inspired to learn more about Vince Guaraldi and his life here. By far the best source of such knowledge is with Derrick Bang. His book ‘Vince Guaraldi at the Piano’ and his website (https://impressionsofvince.blogspot.com/) have the most information and insights about Vince Guaraldi I’m aware of.

It’s astounding the breadth and detail of info & insight Derrick’s published (and still publishes) about Vince G.!

Like so many jazz musicians e.g., Mary Lou Williams, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Horace Silver, Vince Guaraldi explored and expressed transcendent ideas in music; his best-known sacred work, to my knowledge, is his Mass performed in Grace Cathedral.

It’s interesting that Grace Cathedral’s construction was completed so recently, at a time during many of our lifetimes; and with such historic events to commemorate it: Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the completion in 1964; Vince Guaraldi’s Mass was performed in Grace Cathedral May 1965; that was followed by a Mass of Duke Ellington’s (September 1965) there as well.

It’s hard to imagine now, that Vince’s large-scale sacred jazz work was considered as revolutionary and controversial as it was back then; it seems so accepted now to hear jazz in church in all sorts of settings. Incidentally, two musicians and their respective colleagues have also performed the Mass for the fiftieth anniversary of its first performance (each transcribed the work on their own, as no score was created from the original – copyright laws would also prohibit sharing a transcription)

• Bill Carter and his group (he is also going to perform the Mass again for the 60th anniversary, in August 2025)
• Jim Martinez et al., in more of a concert setting
• Derrick Bang described both of these re-creations in his blog: https://impressionsofvince.blogspot.com/2015/08/mass-appeal-chapter-4.html

I’m reading that Vince Guaraldi really appreciated the quality of kids’ voices, and enjoyed collaborating with children’s choirs. Probably his most famous collaboration was with the San Francisco Boys’ Choir. There are stories of how he was a bit of a kid himself in many ways: he was small in stature (his hands were famously pretty small); he was willing to jump on a skateboard; he messed around with yo-yos; he he was a natural with interacting with the young singers in the choirs he worked with.

Members of the chorus appreciated how he made them feel seen and heard by interacting with them as he did, he touched and enhanced lives of the choir members in musical and non-musical ways.

On that same topic of children’s choirs and unique contributors to them: I’ve been lucky recently to accompany for the SF branch National Children’s Choir (https://nationalchildrenschorus.com/about-us/). I’ve worked with two directors associated with the SF branch of that fine organization:

• Dr. Pamela Blackstone (she is also associated with national-level org.)
• Julia Morris (she also directs several adult choirs in Bay Area)

Both of these directors are ninjas (geniuses in my humble opinion!) in their skill-level working with those talented young singers, to make gorgeous-sounding music from really difficult scores. The NCC organization selects a repertoire that is pretty ‘adult’ in my view, in terms of difficulty and maturity (also often tricky for the pianist!).

I’ve come to appreciate what Vince was saying re: how wonderful those young voices sound, and – like Vince – enjoy how much energy and ‘stoke’ those singers have.