The Latin Side of Vince Guaraldi
The Latin Side of Vince Guaraldi is the fifth studio album by Vince Guaraldi released by Fantasy Records in 1964. In a departure from his standard jazz output, Guaraldi combined elements of Brazilian and Caribbean styles of Latin jazz, utilizing a string quartet on five tracks. A remastered edition was released on CD in March 1996. Background The unexpected success of Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus and the Grammy-winning "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" resulted in Guaraldi's drive to explore new musical directions. In particular, Guaraldi wanted to augment several tracks with a string quartet. "I am very proud of it," Guaraldi stated on the album's liner notes. "I want to do things like this and when I am writing tunes or playing my tunes, I think of them in other settings. I think of big bands and string sections when I sit down at the piano, just as Erroll Garner thinks of the piano as an orchestra." For the album's orchestrations, Guaraldi turned to Jack Weeks, son of bandleader Anson Weeks, who had previously worked with Guaraldi peers Cal Tjader and Dave Brubeck. Guaraldi commented that Weeks could "really write so those strings sound right. I wanted to