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

[mikeweil]

Today in the car:

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Barbara Dennerlein - Christmas Soul (MPS)

[Kevin Bresnahan]

A needle drop of Don Patterson's "Holiday Soul" (Prestige). Of Prestige's 2 "Holiday Soul" LPs, the other being by Bobby Timmons, this one will put you to sleep. If Christmas music can be boring, this one fits the bill.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Yule Struttin' - A Blue Note Christmas

Even the CD is festive:

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Tony D'Aveni - Winter Wonderland (IZTONE). I picked this one up at a Christmas show at Jocko's Jazz club in Methuen, MA quite a few years ago. The show was great as is this CD. Recorded and mastered in MA. Not often I hear a CD mastered in East Longmeadow, MA, which is a short drive from my old hometown of Holyoke, MA.

[mikeweil]

Verve's Jazz All Stars of the mid-1990's - oh well ......

[sidewinder]

16 hours ago, bresna said:

Barbara Dennerlein - Christmas Soul (MPS)

I’ve never heard that one - but I can imagine that an Xmas album by Ms Dennerlein would be just great !

[Kevin Bresnahan]

1 hour ago, mikeweil said:

Verve's Jazz All Stars of the mid-1990's - oh well ......

Nice CD but horribly packaged. Whoever thought that this would be work as a CD carrier, never tried using it repeatedly. Hey, cool, it opens like a Christmas present. Hmm... how do you put it back together and stick it onto a shelf? That little tip of cardboard doesn't seem to hold it closed.... better get it in a plastic sleeve. As an engineer, I don't like it when an art director foists such a poorly thought out package on us.

[sidewinder]

43 minutes ago, bresna said:

Nice CD but horribly packaged. Whoever thought that this would be work as a CD carrier, never tried using it repeatedly. Hey, cool, it opens like a Christmas present. Hmm... how do you put it back together and stick it onto a shelf? That little tip of cardboard doesn't seem to hold it closed.... better get it in a plastic sleeve. As an engineer, I don't like it when an art director foists such a poorly thought out package on us.

Probably the same guy that designed the Bill Evans shrapnel receptacle !

[mikeweil]

12 hours ago, bresna said:

Nice CD but horribly packaged. Whoever thought that this would be work as a CD carrier, never tried using it repeatedly. Hey, cool, it opens like a Christmas present. Hmm... how do you put it back together and stick it onto a shelf? That little tip of cardboard doesn't seem to hold it closed.... better get it in a plastic sleeve. As an engineer, I don't like it when an art director foists such a poorly thought out package on us.

My copy has a normal jewel case, but golden tinged. Seems they avoided the US packing extravagance.

[felser]

On 12/4/2020 at 11:39 PM, six string said:

I’m not much of a Christmas album owner but glad I grabbed that Bobby Timmons album when I had the chance.  I play that one with pleasure and guilt free.

I'm that way with the Duke Pearson which is included in the Mosaic Select.  No masterpiece or anything, but totall listenable.

[mikeweil]

On 11.12.2020 at 9:27 PM, bresna said:

A needle drop of Don Patterson's "Holiday Soul" (Prestige). Of Prestige's 2 "Holiday Soul" LPs, the other being by Bobby Timmons, this one will put you to sleep. If Christmas music can be boring, this one fits the bill.

Well, I like both. I think Patterson's rendition of Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer is irresistably cute.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

On 12/13/2020 at 7:31 PM, mikeweil said:

My copy has a normal jewel case, but golden tinged. Seems they avoided the US packing extravagance.

This is what the one I have looks like:

This is what it looks like opened:

You can see that little half moon hole? That is where you are supposed to clip the cardboard tip into. It doesn't hold. And after a couple of tries, of course that little cardboard tip bends and will never hold. I almost think they expect this to be disposable.

[jazzcorner]

[mikeweil]

Yesterday in th car:

[sidewinder]

Bah, humbug..

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Kenny G(orelick) - Miracles: The Holiday Album (Arista). Ahhh... Christmas pablum at its finest. I feel like I'm in a Starbucks.

[duaneiac]

Listened to a couple of CDs filled with holiday cheer --

Three Gals, Three Guitars, or The Great-Aunts Every One Should Have Had as a Kid at Christmas

Definitely one of my Top 10 favorite Christmas albums! 

 

[duaneiac]

[soulpope]

So this is definitely "beyond" jazz , but beautifully sung/performed music nevertheless ....

[gmonahan]

All originals on this one. None of them became standards, but I like the ambition, and Christy is always lovely to hear:

 

[duaneiac]

This is a beautiful album from a beautiful musician.  What a great little band he had back then with the overlooked Clifford Solomon on tenor sax, Danny Caron on guitar, Ruth Davies on bass and Gaylord Birch on drums.  The first time I saw Charles Brown perform was the late set on Christmas Eve at the old Yoshi's in Oakland.  I'm guessing it was '95 or '96.  Mr. Birch had passed away by that time and I forget who the drummer was with the band that night.  To wind up the night, round about 11:30, Mr Brown sang "Merry Christmas, Baby" and with just that one song, it became the most unforgettable Christmas concert I've ever attended.

I love what he does with this song.  It always brings me a few minutes of peace amidst the holiday hubbub.

 

Edited December 19, 2020 by duaneiac

[mikeweil]

Today:

Fine playing from Dennerlein, her drummer Robert Ikiz, and saxist/flutist Magnus Lindgren.

[duaneiac]

This evening, while finishing my Christmas cards --

The Mal Waldron Quartet here performs "The Christmas Song" and features Joe Henderson!  Nice.  The Elvin Jones group includes Terumasa Hino, Dave Liebman, Kenny Kirkland and George Mraz.  The Larry Vuckovich group includes Tom Harrell, Jerome Richardson, Charles McPherson, Ray Drummond and Eddie Moore.  The Richie Cole group includes Art Pepper, Roger Kellaway, Bob Magnusson and Billy Higgins.  I'm not sure when these tracks were recorded (the CD has a 2003 copyright), but it's kind of sad that out of all those musicians apparently only Mr. Pepper and Mr. Hino had recording contracts at that time which entitled them to a "appears courtesy of" credit here.

A bargain CD I found for 50 cents a few years ago.  Which is great because there are only 3 tracks on here I listen to:  one by Kenny Washington (the singer, not the drummer), one by Wesla Whitfield (gosh, how much I miss her -- I wish she had recorded a full Christmas album) and the title track, which has become a sentimental favorite (and hey, it's former Kenton band member Mary Fettig on sax!)

 

[duaneiac]