Vince Guaraldi wrote piano music for a cartoon and in the process gave generations of American children their clearest introduction to jazz. The offhand swing of “Linus and Lucy” and the wistful chord changes of “Christmas Time Is Here” are among the most widely recognized pieces in the American popular repertoire. The Eric Mintel Quartet has spent 15 years building a concert program around those compositions, and the Charlie Brown Jazz Holiday Concert comes to Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg on Sunday, November 29.
About the Show
Pianist Eric Mintel leads a quartet that has held its lineup for over 20 years: Nelson Hill on saxophone and flute, Dave Mohn on drums, Jack Hegyi on bass. The concert draws on Guaraldi’s Peanuts catalog (“Linus and Lucy,” “Skating,” and “Christmas is Coming” among the set pieces), alongside original Mintel compositions and reimagined holiday standards. Prior performances in the series have included a funky reading of “Do You Hear What I Hear” and a Latin-inflected “Jingle Bells” — interpretive choices that signal a working jazz ensemble in conversation with the material rather than a repertory recreation.
The quartet’s résumé extends well beyond the holiday circuit. Mintel and company have performed at the White House by invitation of two presidents, Clinton in 1998 and Obama in 2011, and have given more than 10 concerts at the Kennedy Center. A special concert at the United Nations and a program at the National Gallery of Art place them well outside the regional touring jazz category. Mintel has appeared as a featured guest on NPR’s Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, and the quartet’s recordings air on XM and Sirius radio. All Music Guide’s Matt Collar described Mintel’s work as “urbane, precise, but still passionate modern jazz,” a characterization that echoes the Dave Brubeck comparison the ensemble has long carried. Brubeck himself offered the most direct measure of the pianist: “As long as the music attracts dedicated young musicians like Eric Mintel, jazz will continue to thrive and progress as a voice of freedom.” The group recently issued The Eric Mintel Quartet Live at The Englewood, their first album in over a decade, a live holiday recording built around the same Guaraldi arrangements and Mintel originals that anchor this tour. The show is all ages.
Venue & Logistics
Sherman Theater is in Stroudsburg, on the western edge of the Pocono Mountains and within reach of Hudson Valley audiences. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; the show begins at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets are $25 to $34.90. Buy tickets