Vince Guaraldi Trio - Jazz Impressions Of Black Orpheus (Small Batch, One-Step pressing)

The revolutionary album of Vince Guaraldi Trio, winner of the GRAMMY® Awards, Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus, is the fourth installment in our Small Batch series — a carefully selected collection of vinyl records made using a single-step lacquer process, dedicated to creating the highest quality reissues of legendary recordings from our extensive catalog.

As with previous pressings of Small Batch, Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus has been engraved from his original analog tapes by legendary engineer Bernie Grundman And pressed on 180 gram vinyl at RTI using Neotech VR900 compound and a one-step lacquer process — as opposed to the standard three-step process — allowing the highest level of musical detail, clarity and dynamics while reducing the amount of surface noise on the disc. The limited nature of these pressings ensures that each disc is a true representation of the original lacquer and is as close to the original recording as possible for the listener.

Released in April 1962, Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus made Guaraldi famous — thanks in large part to the irresistible sounds of “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”. In 1963, the song earned Guaraldi a GRAMMY for “Best Original Jazz Composition”. Over the years, it has been covered by a multitude of artists, including Quincy Jones, George Benson, Allen Toussaint, The James Gang and Mel Tormé (who added lyrics). But, more famously, the track caught the attention of television producer Lee Mendelson, who was looking for a musician to compose the music for a documentary on the creator of the PEANUTS^®, Charles M. Schulz, and his famous comic strip. Although the film was never made, Guaraldi recorded the soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas the following year, creating one of the best-selling jazz and Christmas albums of all time.

This edition Small Batch East limited to 3,000 copies worldwide. Each pressing is individually numbered and enclosed in a linen-lined protective slipcase, stamped with gold foil and featuring an acrylic insert of the original artwork. The vinyl record — removable with a unique, friction-free ribbon tab — is housed in a reproduction of the original album cover and protected by an anti-static, scratch-resistant, archival-quality inner sleeve. The set is completed by new liner notes by Derrick Bang, the principal historian of Guaraldi and author of Vince Guaraldi at the Piano (McFarland & Company).