What Christmas Jazz (and beyond) CD (or LP) are you listening to right now?

[Kevin Bresnahan]

36 minutes ago, duaneiac said:

Holiday music from the likes of Solomon Burke, George Jones & Tammy Wynette, Rufus Thomas, Foghat, Huey Piano Smith and little Augie Rios among others. 

I was wondering why I'd never heard of a Christmas tune by Foghat before now and then I listened to it on YouTube. Most unusual version of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" that I've ever heard.

 

[duaneiac]

Yeah, I actually like that track a lot.

Now playing:

[duaneiac]

[duaneiac]

[duaneiac]

[duaneiac]

[duaneiac]

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Just finished:

The Hotel Cafe presents Winter Songs

Nice compilation of female singers with their interpretations of Xmas tunes. Available for free streaming if you have Amazon Prime.

[duaneiac]

[duaneiac]

I guess you'd have to be pretty old to remember the time when Warner Bros. Records tried to be a player in the jazz field.  Included among their roster of artists in 1997 (and represented on this CD) were Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Larry Goldings, Al Jarreau, Bob James and the late Kevin Mahogany.

[Ted O'Reilly]

Jim Galloway made a second Christmas record with another great pianist, Ralph Sutton...

[duaneiac]

[duaneiac]

[mikeweil]

At last I got me a copy of this. Much better than I expected - Dennerlein was too busy a player for my taste early in her career but has matured very nicely. I hear a Rhoda Scott influence on this one.

[duaneiac]

3 hours ago, mikeweil said:

At last I got me a copy of this. Much better than I expected - Dennerlein was too busy a player for my taste early in her career but has matured very nicely. I hear a Rhoda Scott influence on this one.

Glad you enjoyed it.  I actually like this one better than the Rhoda Scott Christmas CD I have.

With just a week left, it's time to start playing some of my old favorites:

The last one is a fun trawl through the musical underbelly of Christmas, but it does have this lovely song.  If you've been stressed out by gift shopping or finishing your Christmas cards or cookie baking, take a few moments to relax and listen to this.  If you're lucky enough to be near one you love, invite them to slow dance.

 

[JSngry]

[duaneiac]

With pianists ranging from Bley, Carla to Walton, Cedar.

[duaneiac]

This particular trio of albums probably do not get listened to as a group very often --

[jcam_44]

Blue Yule 

 

via my boss at work

[mikeweil]

14 hours ago, duaneiac said:

With pianists ranging from Bley, Carla to Walton, Cedar.

This one looks very interesting but seems very hard to find .....

[duaneiac]

3 hours ago, mikeweil said:

This one looks very interesting but seems very hard to find .....

What do you mean it's hard to find.  Why, it's sitting right over there, not 3 feet away from me!

Seriously, I did not know this disc was out of print.  Then I looked on the back and saw it is from 2000, so that is a generation ago now.  The music on the disc is very good and comes from an annual radio special that NPR (the American public radio service) broadcasts, which is just a solid hour of various jazz pianists playing their versions of holiday music.  I would have thought it would be fairly easy to keep it in print even if NPR only sold it on their website (or offered as a "pledge drive" premium).  Perhaps the contracts they signed with the performers only allowed for use on a CD for a limited amount of years.

Now playing:

[danasgoodstuff]

On 12/19/2018 at 0:26 PM, duaneiac said:

Glad you enjoyed it.  I actually like this one better than the Rhoda Scott Christmas CD I have.

With just a week left, it's time to start playing some of my old favorites:

The last one is a fun trawl through the musical underbelly of Christmas, but it does have this lovely song.  If you've been stressed out by gift shopping or finishing your Christmas cards or cookie baking, take a few moments to relax and listen to this.  If you're lucky enough to be near one you love, invite them to slow dance.

 

Thank you for that, Jesus Christ in a Manger I love doo wop!

[duaneiac]

Just listening to the Christmas album (a beautiful solo piano gem) on this 2-fer CD.  I love his very Hodesian version of "Silent Night".

[duaneiac]

Music from the Hot Club of San Francisco.  Warning:  This disc contains a version of the tune which has recently been deemed the most offensive and outrageous assault on all that is good and decent.  Kittens will die if you listen to that song.  Shame on you.

[mikeweil]