Alma-Ville
# Alma-Ville

Professional ratings :

| Review scores ||
| - | - |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Five Cents Please | |

Alma-Ville is the 12th and final studio album by American jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, released in the U.S. by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in December 1969.

## Background

Vince Guaraldi's final three albums released during his lifetime were recorded for Warner Bros.-Seven Arts after spending considerable time struggling to extricate himself from Fantasy Records. Warner signed Guaraldi to a three-record deal, and insisted that his inaugural release consist of his Peanuts songs. Guaraldi responded with new renditions of eight of his most popular scores from those programs on his first release, Oh Good Grief!. Guaraldi was then given complete artistic control over his sophomore, self-produced Warner effort, The Eclectic Vince Guaraldi, resulting in an unfocused and overindulgent album that was not well received by both critics and consumers.

At Warner's insistence, arranger Shorty Rogers was recruited to produce Guaraldi's final album, Alma-Ville. The album includes a cover of The Beatles’ song "Eleanor Rigby", which Guaraldi had been regularly performing during his live sets. The album's title track is a new recording of a song originally recorded earlier for the album Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus (1962).

## Reception

Though deemed a focused improvement over The Eclectic Vince Guaraldi, Warner Bros. lost interest in Guaraldi and did not promote Alma-Ville, letting him go at the end of their three-record deal. Both The Eclectic Vince Guaraldi and Alma-Ville fell into obscurity, with Oh Good Grief! remaining in print and a steady seller due to the perpetual popularity of the Peanuts franchise.

A remastered edition of Alma-Ville was released on July 6, 2018, by Omnivore Recordings as part of the 2-CD set The Complete Warner Bros.–Seven Arts Recordings.

## Track listing

All tracks are written by Vince Guaraldi, except where noted.

## Session information

Credits adapted from remastered 2018 CD liner notes.

