We are officially in the holiday season and this week for What Where When-sday, we feature the Alex Murphy Trio presents Charlie Brown Thanksgiving happening at Rudy’s Jazz Room. Although this event isn’t until November 23rd and 26th, their previous Halloween show, “The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” sold out. Murphy will bring A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving by Vince Guaraldi to life in an evening of soulful, swinging jazz that captures the heart of this Peanuts classic.
“One of the challenges with Charlie Brown Christmas is everybody knows the music so well,” Murphy said. “So how do you approach the music in a fresh way with the spirit of jazz? I make this joke when I do the show, if I did the music top to bottom on the soundtrack, we would be there for three minutes and then you’re done. I got to make a two hour show out of it. I rearranged the music to bring in all my different influences. I got into doing the Charlie Brown Christmas, but this year Rudy’s wanted to see about doing Thanksgiving and Halloween special. Anyone who is a big Charlie Brown fan knows some of the music is carried over from both, but there are unique ones. We’re going to reimagine some of this music for a full concert situation.”
Murphy, who performs regularly and teaches at the Nashville Jazz Workshop, describes Guaraldi’s work and how it influenced him.
“He really provided a framework on how to bring in different influences that could develop into a vision that he had combining pop music, film music, jazz, bossa nova,” he said. “I love Oasis, Sade, hip-hop and all these things, so how can I bring those in? I can look at people like Vince that brought in all these influences that he loved to achieve making a great soundtrack or something legendary that people always remember. For me that’s kind of the model. Can I bring in all of these things into my artistry and what I do as my career?”
Additional event opportunities in the next week:
Tonight (Nov 5) with WNXP Presents Purity Ring at Brooklyn Bowl and you might also see Sabrina Carpenter with Amber Mark and Olivia Dean at Bridgestone Arena. Also starting tonight Briston Maroney presents Paradise with three nights at The Blue Room. Thursday night (Nov 6) the legendary Paul McCartney is at the Pinnacle and Friday night (Nov 7) Booker T. Jones is at Riverside Revival. Also on Friday Viagra Boys performs at Marathon Music Works. Wrap up this week’s listings on Monday (Nov 10) with Of Monsters and Men at the Pinnacle and WNXP Presents Wishy at Cannery Hall’s Row One Stage.
