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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Jazz Christmas
Wednesday 20 December @ 21:09:11 |
 by STEVE McPHERSON
 Kenny Burrell
Have Yourself a Soulful Little Christmas
Cadet Records
“Merry” is such a played out adjective, don’t you think? Barbara J. Gardner, who provides the liner notes for this 1966 album certainly does. “The balance of us who comprise the lunatic fringe of ‘free spirits,’” she writes, “hang a bit more loose and resort to terms like ‘groovey,’ ‘swinging’ or ‘down.’” Ah, the ’60s. Most jazz guitar—and certainly just about any jazz guitar take on holiday standards—makes me want to lose my lunch, and I’m speaking here as someone who studied jazz guitar in college. But Burrell does the instrument proud here. There’s the usual grab bag of well-worn Christmas tunes (“The Little Drummer Boy,” “White Christmas,” “Silent Night”), which get a fresh treatment thanks to concise and swinging horn and string accompaniment, but there’s also a great version of “My Favorite Things” that Burrell imbues with his usual confident and bluesy swagger. Most of the tracks feature Burrell on electric guitar—his natural habitat—but a few (including the Latin-flecked “Mary’s Little Boy Chile”) afford us a rare chance to hear him on acoustic guitar and, much like organist Jimmy Smith (see below), he manages to put his personal stamp on some tired material. Sure, the decision to do “The 12 Days of Christmas” is completely inexplicable, but I’ll give him a mulligan on that one.
 Duke Ellington
Three Suites
Columbia Records
This album certainly doesn’t look Christmas-y; Where’s the snow? Where are the ornaments? Who’s this dashing man in the houndstooth jacket? That’s Duke Ellington; you better recognize. The Ellington-Strayhorn-penned “Suite Thursday” and their take on Grieg via the “Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2” are both excellent, but here we’re going to focus on their rearrangement of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.” Ellington actually met Tchaikovsky in Las Vegas during a stand at the Riviera Hotel and, having received permission from the composer, went about turning “Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy” into “Sugar Rum Cherry” and “Chinese Dance” into “Chinoiserie.” Ellington is best known for his compositions, but what Three Suites (released in 1960) really emphasizes is his (and his underappreciated partner Billy Strayhorn’s) skill for arrangement and interpretation. If you’ve listened to (or perhaps been subjected to) your fair share of Christmas music, you know that it’s the rare work that truly injects a sense of newness into the holiday standards. Ellington and his band, however, ate, slept and breathed soul and swing, and this disc comes off as a kind of great-great-grandfather of the modern day mashup, Strayhorn and Ellington chopping and screwing bits of Tchaikovsky’s original work against sharp big band charts. Ellington was responsible for his fair share of suites, and Tchaikovsky’s delicate and tender collection of dances makes for an unexpectedly natural pairing.
 Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas
Verve Records
This is certainly the most traditional of the jazz discs on offer here, but Ella Fitzgerald is just so damn classy it’s impossible not to dig these renditions of standards from the kid-friendly (“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Frosty the Snowman”) to the modern classics (“Winter Wonderland,” “White Christmas”) to the old school (“We Three Kings of Orient Are”). Where Billie Holiday and Nina Simone pulled their torch-singing from a jagged and fiery emotional core, Fitzgerald was half class, half sass. She could imbue a ballad with as much feeling as anyone, but her light-hearted take on “Jingle Bells”—which is capped off with a nutty exclamation of “I’m just crazy about horses!”—is a lounge-tastic joy, and a good reminder that Christmas is fun, for goodness sake. Such ad-libbed, off-the-cuff insertions pop up throughout the album— “Look at that crazy red suit!” in “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and “Hang your nose down, Rudy” in “Rudolph,” for instance—and it all keeps the mood light and lively. The anonymous orchestra, led by Frank DeVol, acquits itself well, the piano player even getting in a nicely understated solo in “Rudolph.” Plus, she absolutely kills the Mel Torme/Robert Wells-penned “The Christmas Song”; it has been said many times and many ways, but it’s always nice to get a Merry Christmas, especially from Ella Fitzgerald.
 Jimmy Smith
Christmas ’64
Verve Records
I’m glad to see that Verve has recently re-issued this, my most beloved of all Christmas discs, with improved sound, but I’m more than a little bit sad to see the old title (Christmas Cookin’) and the old cover (organist Smith in a Santa outfit and a red convertible set against a crappy—no other word for it—mountain backdrop). The good news is the music still cooks. Don’t be confused by the bombastic orchestral opening to “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.” It might sound like another bloated classical take on the Christmas standard, but Smith’s Hammond B3 organ enters at the half-minute mark, grabbing the theme by the neck and taking it on a greasy little joyride while the big band swings along behind him. Most “jazz” takes on Christmas standards follow the predictable tactic of mellowing them out, but, as the liner notes observe, “the arrangments are as new as tomorrow’s sports car,” and Smith blows the ever-living stuffing out of the big band tunes. The trio cuts here (“Jingle Bells,” “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” and a small group take on “God Rest ...”) are more intimate affairs, but Smith has more soul in his little mistletoe than Kenny G has in his entire stupid sleigh, so stuff your stocking with some real jazz this year.
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