Christmastime is here.
Celebrate like the Peanuts gang when the Alex Murphy Jazz Trio performs the music of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” at 8 p.m. Dec. 16 at Vero Voce Theatre in St. Charles.
“There’s a lot of iconic albums that have influenced musicians. The ‘Charlie Brown Christmas’ album is one that’s credited by a lot of people as being one of the things that got them into jazz,” Alex Murphy said. “The soundtrack to that album is really unique.”
Composed by pianist Vince Guaraldi, the soundtrack to the 1965 television special has become synonymous with classic Christmas carols that mark the season.
“A lot of times people think of jazz and Christmas music in the same light,” Murphy said. “A lot of people associate jazz with Christmas and Christmas with jazz.”
This is the second year Murphy’s jazz trio will be performing the Charlie Brown-themed concert at Vero Voce.
“We had so much success with it last year that we decided to do it again this year,” Murphy said.
The concert marks “a homecoming” of sorts for the trio. All three members grew up in the area. Murphy, who plays piano, is originally from St. Charles, along with Mary Halm on acoustic bass. Jeremy Benshish, who plays drums and cymbals, grew up in South Elgin. Halm and Murphy went to St. Charles East High School, while Benshish went to St. Charles North. Now, all three are juniors at DePaul University majoring in jazz studies.
“The three of us have been playing together for about four years now,” said Murphy, who now lives in Chicago. “We started playing around the suburbs when we were juniors in high school.”
They regularly play at Szechwan Restaurant in St. Charles, and this summer performed at the St. Charles Fine Arts Fair. Since last year’s Christmas show at Vero Voce, Murphy has performed there several more times.
After the success of last year’s concert, the trio decided to expand the program.
“We decided we had a little extra time to do a couple things that weren’t from ‘Charlie Brown Christmas,'” Murphy said. “We thought we’d include a couple other classic Christmas songs.”
The trio will be joined by vocalists Brandon Raasch and Jessica Blakely — both originally from St. Charles as well. Blakely attended St. Charles East and Raasch attended St. Charles North.
“We’re going to have two special guests who are both talented vocalists,” Murphy said. “They’re both going to sing one song a piece with us and then do a duet.”
With multiple generations familiar with the classic Charlie Brown special, the concert is something all ages can enjoy, he said. Murphy arranged the music from the TV special for his trio.
“For the most part it’s the same instrumentation as a lot of the music on the actual soundtrack,” Murphy said. “It’s just a really wonderful album.
“We already got a healthy amount of tickets sold for this year already,” Murphy said. “We’re really looking forward to seeing people.”
Kathy Cichon is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
Alex Murphy Jazz Trio plays music from ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’
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When: Dec. 16
Where: Vero Voce Theatre, 951 State Ave., Suite F, St. Charles
Tickets: $15 adult; $12 seniors and students
Information: 630-584-0139; www.verovoce.com