TITLE: The Definitive Vince Guaraldi (Concord Music Group)

ARTIST: Vince Guaraldi

STARS: 5 out Of 5 Stars

SOUNDS LIKE: Warm, soothing piano jazz from your childhood memories.

The late Vince Guaraldi’s music is as relaxing as a glass of warm milk and a cookie. That may be because that’s what many people were probably eating when they first heard his cool, uncluttered piano jazz sound.

Many know Guaraldi’s music from the Peanuts TV cartoon specials. He provided the musical score for “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” and other holiday specials. It’s through these cartoons that many people got their first taste of jazz.

But Guaraldi was a name in jazz before these cartoon specials. His warm, clear sound can be heard on some of the early recordings of Cal Tjader and Woody Herman in the 1950s. For a time, he also fronted his own jazz trio.

“The Definitive Vince Guaraldi” is a two CD collection of 31 tracks covering Guaraldi’s early years to his later work on the “Peanuts” cartoons.

Everything from the jazz classic “Cast your Fate to the Wind” to the soothing “Christmas Time is here” is on the collection.

“(Guaraldi) always played cheerfully,” said saxophonist Jerry Dodgion from a press release, “like someone would who first played boogie-woogie when he was a kid.”

There’s a simple and uncomplicated quality to Guaraldi’s music that is fresh and rejuvenating. That’s not to mean it isn’t good music. It’s cheerful jazz that will lift your spirits and put a smile on your face.