A sumptuous triple vinyl/double CD and hi-res download reissue of Guaraldi's famous third album, first issued on Fantasy in 1962, and the one which made him a household name (thanks to the breakthrough hit single, the Grammy-winning ‘Cast Your Fate To The Wind’).

Accompanied by Monte Budwig on bass and Colin Bailey on drums, Guaraldi mixed his originals with covers of tunes from songs from the 1959 Oscar-winning French/Brazilian movie Orfeu Negro to create a classic, mellow, West Coast Latin-tinged jazz sound that sold by the bucketload.

Born in San Francisco, Vince Guaraldi began his career in the early 1950s, playing alongside vibraphonist Cal Tjader. By 1954, he’d established his own trio and, within a year, his first recordings as a bandleader were released by Fantasy Records as part of their multi-artist collection, Modern Music from San Francisco. Shortly thereafter, the Bay Area label signed Guaraldi to an exclusive deal, releasing his self-titled debut album in 1956, followed by A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing in 1957. But it was Orpheus that established the pianist as both a leader and a musician-composer with a signature sound: easy- going and accessible, flavoured with the Latin sounds he’d picked up from his Californian youth and with Tjader, and possessed of a keen melodic sense and a feel for a foot-tapping rhythm.

Guaraldi was much taken with the soundtrack when he saw the movie and dreamed up a concept album based on the film. During these initial sessions, the three musicians recorded several standards for the album, including the Buddy Johnson-penned blues ballad, ‘Since I Fell for You’, and Henry Mancini's soon-to-be-classic ‘Moon River’.

The trio also recorded Fats Waller's ‘Jitterbug Waltz’. This was not included on the original album, but no fewer than three versions are included on this edition – and very good they are too.

After initial sessions in 1961, the trio returned to the studio in February 1962, where they tackled two new compositions by Guaraldi: ‘Cast Your Fate to the Wind’ and ‘Alma-Ville’. Both bore the pianist's hallmarks: whimsical phrasing, a swinging right hand, rhythmic bounce and a strong melodic sense.

They also interpreted four selections from the Orfeu Negro soundtrack: Jobim's ‘O Nosso Amor’ and ‘Felicidade’ (mistitled as ‘Generique’ on the original LP release), as well as Bonfá's ‘Manhã de Carnaval’ and ‘Samba de Orfeu’. The alternate takes of these tunes (as well as a couple more takes of ‘O Nosso Amor’) included here showcase the musicians’ ease with the burgeoning bossa genre.

Guaraldi would continue to delve deeper into the sounds of Brazil and famously paired up with guitarist Bola Sete later in the 1960s. But it was Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus that changed the course of the pianist's career. Not only did the ‘Wind’ single make him a pop-friendly name and provide him with handsome royalty cheques for the rest of his life, but it also caught the ear of television producer Lee Mendelson, who was searching for a musician to score a documentary about Peanuts creator Charles M Schulz, and his popular comic strip.

While that film was never released, Guaraldi recorded the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas the following year, creating the second biggest-selling (five million copies and counting) jazz album in history. But that's another story for another time…

On this new all-analogue, Kevin Gray-cut, RTI pressed edition, you get two LPs’ worth (16 tracks, 12 of them never-before-released) of bonus material, which, together with the stunning sound, makes a strong case for this Craft edition being the definitive version of a much-reissued album.

Hardcore audiophiles might be interested to know that Craft is also issuing a single LP version in its ‘Small Batch’ series – pressed using a one-step lacquer process at RTI utilising Neotech's VR900 vinyl compound; that one is mastered by Bernie Grundman from the analogue master and features liner notes from Derrick Bang, the world's leading Guaraldi historian, as well as a foil-stamped, linen-wrapped slipcase. It's limited to 3,000 individually-numbered copies, so hurry!