"This album of melodic jazz piano will feel like an old friend from the very first listen. Though it makes some forays into Brazilian music, the basic style will be familiar to anyone who grew up watching the Charlie Brown animated TV specials since Guaraldi wrote and performed the soundtracks to those programs. Very little of Guaraldi's original work appears on this record. But he really does a beautiful job of making other people's songs sound like his own. What I appreciate is the restraint that characterizes Guaraldi's playing. Though clearly a virtuoso musician, he avoids lengthy, self-aggrandizing solos, focusing instead on enhancing the songs themselves. "In Person" may not be the most adventurous jazz record I've ever heard, but it's certainly one of the most consistently enjoyable."
Brillian chops as usual from the Master.
Tom Frenzel (tfrenze@aol.com) | Chicago, IL | 01/15/1999
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Guaraldi is as brilliant as ever. This being a live album, it proves he didn't need mulitple takes to "get it right". He was mostly in his Latin bag for this recording. The sound reproduction is a little dissapointing, however. Just the same, with so few Guaraldi albums available, this is a precious find."
An Excellent Follow-Up to "Black Orpheus"
Steven R. Seim | Beaver Dam, WI United States | 07/19/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
""In Person" continued the sound of Vince Guaraldi's 1962 masterpiece, "Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus." Despite being a "live" album, the audience noise has been removed, and this is all original material.Vince Guaraldi created one of the most original, distinctive, and joyous sounds in jazz piano. This work - like his others - deserves a wider audience."
More atmosphere than substance
ricadus | London | 08/05/2005
(2 out of 5 stars)
"The most distinctive thing about this album is the cover design, which reflects the fact this was a compilation of two different live sets: one, a standard jazz set featuring his trio; the other an expanded line-up venturing into Cal Tjader territory, with acoustic guitar (Eddie Duran, who doesn't take any solos here but keeps the Latin groove chugging along) and some heavy-handed percussion.
The sound quality isn't great, but in a way this adds a kind of documentary flavour to the proceedings - snapshots of typical club sets somewhere in late 50s/early 60s San Francisco when Latin and pop jazz was ubiquitous in venues such as the "Blackhawk" or the "Hungry i".
But I can't help wondering if the original LP was little more than a quickly-issued follow up to Guaraldi's suprise hit, Cast Your Fate To The Wind (a.k.a Jazz Impressions Of Black Orpheus), such is the triviality and brevity of some of these tracks."