Customer Reviews

Traditional Jazz Christmas

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

 

 

This is an excellent collection of jazz-based Christmas tunes from the Chess, Decca, Impulse!, and Commodore labels, recorded between 1948 and 1968. The album features universally well known artists like Louis Armstrong, Mel Torme, Peggy Lee, and Lionel Hampton, but some of the others, like Ramsey Lewis, Ahmad Jamal, and Kenny Burrell, who may be known primarily to jazz fans, are also masters who do a great job on holiday favorites.

Among the highlights are Torme singing his own "The Christmas Song" -- the version here is from a mid-50s live recording with piano and clarinet -- very intimate, beautifully done. Tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons gives us a very swinging "Swingin' for Christmas," which is a fast-moving small-group medley from 1948 of the well-known holiday tunes "Joy to the World," "Jingle Bells," and "White Christmas." Former Ellington vocalist Al Hibbler sings a beautiful "Silent Night" from 1956, and, from the 60s, you have guitarist Kenny Burrell swinging "Little Drummer Boy" with a full jazz orchestra, as well as pianist Ramsey Lewis playing a very nice version of "Twelve Days of Christmas," which I don't believe is on his excellent Christmas album "The Sounds of Christmas." Lionel Hampton plays and sings a version of "Jingle Bells" retitled as "Swingle Jingle," featuring him on piano rather than his usual vibes (and he's good, too), from 1964. Jamal's live "Snowfall," the Claude Thornhill semi-standard of winter, is quite good, as is Peggy Lee's "Ring Those Christmas Bells." Even "Sleigh Ride" by the Soulful Strings, an instrumental group I previously didn't know, is very enjoyable, with a hip 60s flute solo over a semi-rock beat. Really, there isn't a bad cut on this album.

Quite a bit of variety here for fans of jazz and Christmas music -- you can't go wrong.