Playing For Peanuts Jazz Album By Wynton Marsalis Expresses His Affection For Music Of Charlie Brown Specials

Wynton Marsalis, clearly among the highest earners in jazz, has decided to work for, eh, Peanuts.

That’s because his forthcoming Columbia album, “Joe Cool’s Blues,” features music originally written for the 1987 television program “This Is America Charlie Brown: The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk.” The Marsalis album, newly recorded, is scheduled for release Tuesday.

Has Marsalis, who routinely visits music departments and school rooms conducting master classes and concerts for young people while waving high the banner of classic jazz, always been a fan of Peanuts? “Absolutely,” the trumpeter says, recalling his childhood tele-viewing days. “Everybody knew those Charlie Brown specials. They were the only time you heard people swinging on TV.”

“Joe Cool’s Blues” not only showcases the brass man’s compositional talents writing for children, it also features another individual who is clearly responsible for the primacy of the Marsalis name - father Ellis Marsalis. On the album, the pianist patriarch reprises, trio-style, tunes by West Coast compatriot Vince Guaraldi, who scored 16 Peanuts shows before his death in 1976. The elder Marsalis regards Guaraldi as a pathfinder.

“Guaraldi was almost courageous,” he says, “because he was given a certain kind of freedom, and he went with it. Jazz was never welcome on network television. He took a jam-session approach, which was far more characteristic of jazz musicians than the typical approach taken by Hollywood composers. Those guys might have used jazz techniques within compositional structures, but Guaraldi featured jazz in its most natural form.”

Columbia plans to emphasize the fact that “Joe Cool’s Blues” is a family affair. It intends to broaden the demographic group that listens to Wynton and Ellis - and to jazz itself. “The album is a continuation of what they both do as educators,” says Kevin Gore, the label’s senior director of jazz promotion and marketing. “They get the music into the hearts and souls of young people. As a result, we’re targeting (advertising in) publications that skew toward younger readers.

“At the same time, this is serious music, and we want to reach a mass audience.”

For the younger Marsalis, the task of writing for children is not appreciably different than writing for adults. Seven of the album’s 13 tunes are originals. “Reaching them is not that tough to do,” he says of these jazz novitiates, “because kids can deal with things that are complex. The only thing you have to be conscious of is boredom. You can’t stay with the same thing. Kids can’t deal with things that are too complex or too simple if you stay with those ideas too long. The key is to mix things up.

“The thing most people don’t realize is that children’s songs are great vehicles for teaching improvisation, because they usually contain few chords. Try ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat.’ Jazz it up, and you’ve got a wonderful educational tool. Kids love that stuff.”

One of the more recognizable tracks on “Joe Cool’s Blues” is “Linus & Lucy,” the now-famous Guaraldi tune associated with the Peanuts series. (In jazz circles, the tune was popularized by pianist David Benoit’s 1989 version for GRP’s “Happy Anniversary Charlie Brown.”) Wynton’s interpretation exhibits the character of a children’s song, but it is not childlike.

Says Eric Reed, pianist in Marsalis’ septet, “I can’t really make the connection that ‘Linus & Lucy’ is for kids. It was one of the first songs I learned to play using two hands, but this version still features a very abstract and sophisticated arrangement.”

For the elder Marsalis, the tune and the album have obvious appeal that cuts across generational lines. “It’s kid’s music in that we make artificial separations between us and kids,” he says. “But everyone who is in touch with himself is still a kid. My children grew up on Peanuts, but this music still speaks to me.”