Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesFriday MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday Vince Guaraldi Edition

It would be very difficult to be a young child growing up in the ‘80s or ‘90s with a TV set in the house to not come across at least one of the Charlie Brown specials on a yearly basis. And it would be impossible to think about those cartoons without thinking of the music Vince Guaraldi created for the Peanuts gang. The idea of adding music from a ‘60s Jazz trio to a children’s cartoon probably seemed a little left-field at the time. It turned out to be a genius idea by series creator Charles M. Schultz and his creative team, as Guaraldi’s alternately languid and sprightly piano, always played with an undercurrent of melancholy, matched Schultz’ characters and world perfectly. Guaraldi’s cool, graceful pieces made Charlie Brown’s travails a little easier to endure for young audiences while also adding some real sophistication to their music experiences.

Wish a posthumous Happy Birthday to this jazzman by taking your MP3 player, pressing the "shuffle" button, and sharing the first 10 songs that you hear:

1. Betty Carter – Look What I Got (Look What I Got!): Softly muted Jazz with a strong rhythm section, not unlike something Mr. Guaraldi would be playing in his band

2. The Frames – Trying (Burn the Maps): Slow and Soft pop with an earnest flourish at the end, from a band who knows how to do earnest

3. Dayna Stephens – Seems Like Yesterday (Reminiscent): Modern Jazz from a saxophone prodigy and one of the “Young Lions” who helped carry Jazz through the 2000s

4. Samuel L. Jackson – Stack-O-Lee (Black Snake Moan Soundtrack): Jackson does some singing in this 2006 would-have-been-provacative-if-anyone-watched-it film. It sounds pretty much like you would imagine Samuel L. Jackson would sound singing a blues song

5. Grimes – Oblivion (Vision): A teeny-bopper pop song shot into orbit with a four-on-the-floor beat. The world is a better place with Grimes in it

6. The Smiths – Stretch Out and Wait (Louder Than Bombs): With Smiths songs, genuine melancholy is always right behind the sardonic posturing

7. Panda Bear – Drone (Tomboy): Truth in advertising as far as the title goes, this is one of the slowest, most meditative song on the album

8. Animal Collective – Wide Eyed (Centipede Hz): It’s easy to pick up a lot of different musical influences on an AC record - Middle Eastern inflections can be heard here, especially in the vocals

9. Robert Levin Trio – Keyboard Trio in E Major, H 15/28: III Finale Allegro (Haydn Piano Trios): Chamber music written by the “Father of the String Quartet”

10. Sandrider – Gorgon (Godhead): A polar opposite of a Haydn piece in many ways. Music for ripping your Harley down the highway, while being chased by cops

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