IT’S the North American seasonal alternative that’s more Christmas than a James Bond movie or The Great Escape.

Millions of people across the pond tune in to A Charlie Brown Christmas each year, ever since it was first aired in 1965.

Now this tradition is being brought to Colchester thanks to Canadian composer Jason Frederick.

Jason, who has written pieces for Hollywood films, television adverts, and once topped the rock charts in his home country, moved to Colchester with his wife, Angela, who grew up in the area.

Since then, as well as continuing his work composing, Jason has performed a number of ‘live’ projects including his Mods and Coppers big band show which includes music from such films as Bullitt, Get Carter and Dirty Harry, a special horror night, explaining the soundtracks used in scary films, which in turn led to him presenting the Colchester Arts Centre’s season of classic horror movies, the latest of which is Tales from the Crypt on December 21.

But before that, this weekend, Jason is showcasing another great soundtrack, that of Vince Guaraldi, the man who composed the music for A Charlie Brown Christmas.

“It’s a proper thing over there,” he tells me. “Every Christmas people sit down and watch the half hour episode, without fail, but for me it was another of those moments when I was first introduced to the combination of music and image.”

Vince Guaraldi scored more than a dozen Peanuts TV specials in what was the ultimate musical sleight of hand by making parents and kids bob their heads and tap their feet along to jazz without knowing they were even listening to it.

“I think people love Charlie Brown,” he continues, “because despite whatever life throws at him he’s one of those guys who keeps on getting back up to bat.

“What’s so great about it for me is the music, which was just so different to anything that had been done before at the time. Mixing West Coast jazz with an animated series was revolutionary and so cool as well.”

On the night of its TV premiere, A Charlie Brown Christmas was seen by almost half of the American population. It also made Snoopy one of the most visible and beloved characters in American popular culture.

With Jason on the piano, Scott Wheeler on double bass, and Dan Mullins on drums, the first half of the show features music from A Charlie Brown Christmas, along with Vince Guaraldi’s Grammy-winning Cast Your Fate To The Wind and The Great Pumpkin Waltz, plus two brief films about Vince and his Peanuts music.

The second half comprises Vince Guaraldi-style Christmas tunes and, to end the evening, a swinging sing-a-long 12 Days Of Christmas.

Jason started his musical career as a member of an indie rock band who got signed to a major record label but when they broke up 18 months later he decided to try his hand at television and film composing.

“When I was ten, I remember going to see Goldfinger,” Jason says.

“Hearing that music for the first time was one of those real switch-on moments, so when the band broke up I decided to go into television and film scoring.”

And to do that, Jason headed for the centre of the industry, California – the University of Southern California, to be precise, where he took perhaps the world’s most renowned course on scoring for motion pictures and television.

After graduating, Jason began working with composer Richard Gibbs, who did the music for Dr Doolittle with Eddie Murphy and the Muppets television show, called the Muppets Tonight.

His first writing job was on a film Richard was scoring, called 28 Days, with Sandra Bullock and Dominic West in which Jason did the music for a soap opera which was on in the background of the film.

Now Jason writes for films, documentaries and for products like Bombay Sapphire and Skoda.

He’s also continuing his celebration of great British composers.

Jason says: “The first composer I met up with was Howard Blake. He’s probably best known as the man behind The Snowman but actually I wanted to speak to him about Amityville 3D, which is not a particularly great film but has just the most amazing soundtrack.

“I saw it when I was 12 and the music really stuck with me.

“He was a really lovely guy and we talked about all kinds of things like how he took over The Avengers from Laurie Johnson and how he numbers all his piece, plus we got to go over his scores which as a composer was a real treat.”

Available on Jason’s YouTube channel, he’s also interviewed John Scott, Christopher Gunning, and Kes composer John Cameron.

“When it comes to soundtracks,” Jason adds, “it doesn’t get better than Kes. But he’s done lots of other things that people probably don’t know about like the orchestration for Les Miserables and that famous instrumental of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love, which they used on Top of the Pops for years. That was him as well.”

The Jason Frederick Cinematic Trio presents A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Music of Vince Guaraldi at the Colchester Arts Centre this Sunday.

Doors open at 7pm and tickets are £14, £12 for concessions with a family ticket priced £10, available from colchesterartscentre.com or by calling 01206 500900.