He cooked. He served. All while he served.

During the Korean War, legendary San Francisco jazz impresario Vince Guaraldi was a United States Army soldier. His main job? He was a Food Service Operations Specialist (a cook or chef).

After he got discharged from the service, he jumped right into the music scene and quickly made a name for himself. By 1955, he even had his own “trio”, that comprised of himself, Eddie Duran and Dean Reilly.

In 1959, he decided to branch out and do his own solo thing, and in 1962 recorded a cover album of Antonio Carlos Jobim/Luis Bonfá songs called Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus. Wikipedia puts it well that he “would have remained a well-respected but minor jazz figure had he not written an original number to fill out his covers”.

That “number” was the song in the YouTube clip below titled “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”. It would go on to win a Grammy for “Best Original Jazz Composition”.

It’s utterly gorgeous and, if you need a little endorphin boost today, it can do that:

By the way, if Guaraldi’s name or sound seem familiar to you, it’s probably because of this:

He wrote this too.