Derrick Bang recently completed a book-length study of San Francisco jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, best remembered these days as the composer who put some swing into Charlie Brown’s step. Derrick’s purpose in writing the book, however, was to shed equal light on Guaraldi’s many other equally significant accomplishments: his years as a sideman with Cal Tjader and Woody Herman; his attraction to the emerging bossa nova sound of the late 1950s; his career-making hit song, “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” which won a Grammy Award; his collaborations with Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete; his development and performance of the Grace Cathedral Jazz Mass; and his emergence as a respected veteran of the Northern California jazz club scene of the 1970s.

Derrick also is author of 2000's popular and critically praised "50 Years of Happiness: A Tribute to Charles M. Schulz." In early 2004, he released a second book about Schulz, this one focusing on the cartoonist's early work after returning home from his WWII service: "Charles M. Schulz: Li'l Beginnings." This was followed, in 2005, by Derrick's editorial involvement with a third book highlighting yet another previously untapped glimpse into Schulz's past: "It's Only a Game," which assembled all the short-lived panel cartoons that the Peanuts creator produced in the late 1950s with collaborator and "ghost" Jim Sasseville. In 2009, Derrick and co-editor Don Fraser assembled "Security Blankets: How Peanuts Touched Our Lives," a collection of anecdotes by people whose lives had been transformed by Schulz's work.

Derrick grew up in the greater Los Angeles basin and then fled, in 1973, to attend UC Davis; he loved the area and decided to remain as a full-time resident after graduating in June 1977. To fill those hours when he wasn't busily writing for any newspaper or magazine foolish enough to publish him, he founded The Game Preserve, a retail Davis game-and-puzzle store, in September 1978. Derrick kept his shop open for just over 18 years, and finally closed the business in January 1997, when he became entertainment editor of The Davis Enterprise, a full-time position he held until October 2010. Derrick has written film, television, Internet and general entertainment commentary for local newspapers since 1974, and still supplies regular columns and features to The Enterprise. Other recent projects have included extensive liner notes for CD re-issues of classic albums by Guaraldi. Derrick lives in Davis, California, with his wife, Gayna, and two preternaturally precocious pets.

Vince Guaraldi at the Piano (Paperback)

By Derrick Bang, Charles Gompertz

ISBN-13: 9780786459025
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: McFarland & Company, 3/2012

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