Looking back over 2024 brought to mind a joke from the great animated TV series “Archer”: “That got dark.” But there was nothing funny about so much of what happened this year. The smiles all but disappeared. So, why not go in to the holiday season with music that can bring back some of the smiles we are missing?
Most of the songs here are not new but they’re new to me. I’ve heard most of these on the Pittsburgh radio station WZUM, a community resource I only discovered this year. It took someone from Colorado to let me know that my own hometown – that birthed so many jazz legends like Erroll Garner, Kenny Clarke, Stanley and Tommy Turrentine and George Benson to name only a few – has a 24-hour jazz station in WZUM.
This guy doesn’t normally dig Christmas music. But every once in a while I am reminded that so much of this music can do much to uplift and keep us up there. Enjoy!
Christian Sands – “Jingle Bells” (2023) – When I first heard this a couple of weeks ago, I thought it was Eric Clapton covering “All Blues” – and then it turned into a clever way of framing “Jingle Bells,” of all things. Pianist Christian Sands was mentored by no less than Billy Taylor and studied under Jason Moran – both of whom would no doubt approve of what Sands does here. Not sure whether the Clapton-esque guitar is Marvin Sewell or Max Light. But it has all the right touches for Christmas jazz…and blues. From Sands’s 2023 Mack Avenue album Christmas Stories.
Bob James Trio – “Personent Hodie (Sing Aloud on This Day)” (1997) – This song dates backs to a 16th century Finnish Christmas carol. Leave it to Bob James to dig it up and spin it in to a 20th century jazz masterpiece (Wayne Shorter would also record a version of the song in 2003). But I love this more for what Bob James himself brings to it than the song itself. “Personent Hodie” was likely recorded around the time of the BJT’s Straight Up (1996), but it first appeared on the compilation Warner Bros. Jazz Christmas Party (1997). It later reappeared as “On This Day (Personent Hodie)” on the 2008 disc Christmas Eyes, by Bob James and daughter/vocalist Hilary James.
Cyrus Chestnut – “My Little Drum” (2000) – This one comes from an all-star album pianist Cyrus Chestnut waxed in 2000 called A Charlie Brown Christmas. Chestnut’s album pays tribute to the 1965 Vince Guaraldi soundtrack, with additional Christmas classics enhancing the festive mood. “My Little Drum” riffs off of “The Little Drummer Boy,” while Chestnut and company bring out the original melody, enhanced with Guaraldi’s melody. The line-up here is a Christmas wish-list of first-call jazz players, including pianist Chestnut (who also arranged) as well as Steve Turre on trombone and shells, Steve Cole on tenor sax, Christian McBride on bass, Steve Gadd on drums and Don Alias on percussion. It’s magical and even moving in a way that most other takes on “The Little Drummer Boy” rarely are.
Also worth hearing is drummer Louis Bellson’s 1992 take on “The Little Drummer Boy” with Ted Nash on tenor sax, Marvin Stamm on flugelhorn, Derek Smith on piano and Jay Leonhart on bass. What a swinger!
Keith Jarrett – “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” (1998 – issued 2018) – When I first heard this, I thought, “Hey, that sounds like Keith Jarrett. That’s definitely Jack Dejohnette. But Keith Jarrett would never do ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town,’ would he?” Well, he certainly did. And boy this trio does it up nicely – in that kind of gospel-funk mode Jarrett has patented as his own. (Pianist Bill Evans also covered “Santa Clause on the Trio 64 album, recorded the week before Christmas 1963.) I think every once and a while the serious (and even angry) Jarrett wanted to prove he could be playful just as well. That comes through here and it’s a joy.
Jimmy Calire Piano Trio – “Joy to the World” (2000) – This funky little version of “Joy to the World” comes from a name I didn’t recognize. Turns out Jimmy Calire, a session player as well as a solo pianist and organist, goes back to the blues rock band Raven (1969) and was in the soft-rock band America from 1976 to 1980. Delightfully playful, the Calire trio handles “Joy to the World” much like the Vince Guaraldi might – until the solo, when Calire unleashes his inner Don Pullen. It immediately made me smile. I would have danced if I wasn’t driving. From a 2000 CD Baby disc called Spirited Christmas, which can now be found on most streaming platforms. Bring it on.
Tom Scott – “Feliz Navidad” (1993) – To be fair, this one is a bit of a cheat. I discovered Tom Scott’s version of “Feliz Navidad” years ago when I was putting together a Tom Scott compilation (the one pictured in the YouTube video above, in fact). At the time, I had no idea that this even existed. It only appeared on GRP Christmas Collection, Vol III (1993), one of those label compilations I had always avoided. But it’s hard not to feel the joy of Christmas with this fantastic version of “Feliz Navidad. “I want to wish you a Merry Christmas”…indeed.
Bonus: A song that deserves to be considered a carol for our times…
Oscar Peterson – “Hymn to Freedom” (1999) – From the magnificent late-period concert A Summer Night in Munich. Freedom. Let’s hope.