Whether it brings you back to childhood or you’re hearing it for the first time, the jaunty jazz music of A Charlie Brown Christmas is hard to resist.
For the fourth year, Claire Butler and her trio are presenting it on stage in Calgary, complete with choirs of adorable little humans.
Growing up in England, Butler had never heard the music until she had her own children. “My husband put it on for our kids and I thought, ‘oh this is so nice, I love it.’”
A classically trained pianist, Butler had started playing with a trio and crossing over into jazz. The trio decided to perform the music live, in the tradition of Jerry Granelli, who was the drummer in the trio that recorded the music in 1965.
“It’s not the play, there’s no acting, it’s essentially how Jerry did it,” Butler says, “which is basically performing the soundtrack live.”
Butler is the Music Specialist at the Montessori School of Calgary, so each year she brings a choir of her students, aged three to 11, to sing with the trio.
“The children have beautiful voices, they can get those high notes and have that nice, pure, special sound that only children make. It warms your heart, hearing that,” she says.
This year she is also bringing a choir from the Youth Singers of Calgary. Kodi Hutchinson and Jim Johnston round out her trio and as an additional treat, flautist Rachel Flatt is also joining them. It’s a family-friendly event.
“It’s just nostalgic, I think it appeals to all ages and all people because you don’t have to know it to enjoy it. It’s immediately appealable,” she says.
The kids are always excited,” she says. “They see my excitement and I think it rubs off on them. And it does help that I have Charlie Brown cookies at the end of the show.”
A Charlie Brown Christmas will be performed at the Engineered Air Theatre at Arts Commons, December 18. Tickets and details can be found here.
