Customer Reviews

Swing Into Christmas

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a Christmas nut, I'll admit it. I have a huge collection of Christmas music of all types, and after Thanksgiving, nothing else plays in my house EVER. So I know the importance of giving friends and loved ones something besides what they hear at a mall (or they'd knock me out and break my CD player!) Swing Into Christmas is one of my very favorites - and NOBODY has ever objected to it, even the grinches in my life. It's just good jazz - by jazz greats vamping on a few Christmas tunes, man.

I couldn't find my copy after a fairly recent move - apparently not all the CDs went back into their little plastic homes. This is the only one I've replaced so far, because I simply HAD to have it -- even though I have TONS of other Christmas CDs that won't get me lynched, like Ramsey Lewis Trio's Sound Of Christmas and More Sounds; great piano jazz, jazz sax and jazz trio renditions, and almost all of Mannheim Steamroller, like Christmas, A Fresh Aire Christmas, etc. -- AND I still haven't unpacked every single box so I may still come across the ones that go in the empty cases.

I missed Swing Into Christmas the whole season, so I finally broke down and bought what may turn out to be a duplicate copy. And you know what? It will have been SO well worth it! (In fact, I may not wait until next season to fire it up again) ~ Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, MCC, SCAC

We liked MOST of the songs on the CD. A risk you take when buying CD's. My husband was not happy with the vocalist on Amazing Grace, but he was expecting a instrumental CD . We purchased it mainly because we had heard "Christmas Time is Here" on the radio. Great arrangement. And we found this great bargain deal on the amazon marketplace. For a live concert recording - very well done.

The CD's title may mislead the consumer into thinking this is a WWII big-band Christmas date. "Swing Into Christmas" is anything but.

There are two selections ("Carol of the Bells"; "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!") on this "entirely live" date that have a larger-band format, led by Wynton Marsalis. However, without any musical training whatsoever, the amount of "swing" on this disc can be interpreted as differently as the musical definition of the word. For example, Parker, Monk, Miles and Brubeck all swing, right? But is theirs "swing" music?

Make no mistake: this disc does, indeed, swing. With the exception of the extremely powerful Tramaine Hawkins' rendition of "Amazing Grace," her interpretation of "The First Noel" (which I really didn't care for), and Marcus Roberts' reverential "O Come All Ye Faithful," there isn't a tune that you can't tap your feet to. Even the slower tunes (Grover Washington on "A Cradle in Bethlehem" and Terrance Blanchard's piercing "Christmas Time Is Here") have a sense of rhythym that is impossible to ignore.

Perhaps the only tunes listeners may identify as "swing" are Blanchard's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and Marsalis' "Let It Snow!" But don't let that dissuade you from purchasing this for someone's stocking stuffer (or your own). I've played this disc every holiday season, and countless times throughout the year.