Guaraldi was fascinated by boogie-woogie when he was young, and that rumbling left-hand bass part is boogie modernized and streamlined. He wasn’t a super-virtuoso, but he was a great piano stylist who favored a pared-down, singing line, and loved to swing. His fingers were short, but they’d sprint up the keys. Guaraldi would also slip up to the good notes from below, like another great midcentury piano stylist, Nashville’s Floyd Cramer.

- Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead: Vince Guaraldi Didn’t Just Play For ‘Peanuts’