To get you into the Christmas mood, we’re dedicating this week to music that reflects the Christmas season. A bunch of new releases and old reissues have recently been released, and what follows is a summary of a bunch of them. Happy listening!
Here’s an interesting pairing of sounds. Steve Richman’s Harmonic Ensemble takes the “legit” version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutrcracker Suite for about a third of the material, while the jazz team that included Lew Tabackin/ts, Lew Soloff/tp, George Cables/p, Victor Lewis/dr and Bill Easley/cl perform the Ellington/Strayhorn adaptation of the same material. The classic version is pretty straightforward, while the Ducal versions have a warm richness of texture. Some tricky reed intervals come into play during “Chinoiserie” and “The Volga” and Tabackin’s tenor is in excellent form. I just wish that the whole piece were done. It’s a tempting morsal, making you beg for more.
Harmonia Mundi