Jane Monheit’s inherent romanticism was custom made for holiday albums such as this. Pianist Dave Benoit recently teamed up with her for a poppish album, but this one withhis teammates Jamey Tate/dr and David Hughes/b hits all the cylinders just…
Month: November 2015
CREATIVE CHRISTMAS…Etienne Charles: Creole Christmas, Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra: Joyful Jazz, Ann Hampton Callaway: The Hope of Christmas
Here are three fresh ways to celebrate the birth of our Savior! Trumpeter Etienne Charles delivers a Crescent City delight as he mixes Noel with New Orleans on this session. A peppy brass section delivers a calypso “Father Christmas” with…
Corky Hale: Have Yourself a Jazzy Little Christmas
You’ll grab for the egg nog on this disc by Corky Hale as she plays harp, celeste and piano with Kirk Smith/b and Tom Walsh/dr on a gently swinging collection of Christmas and Chanukah songs. Walsh hits hard on “Santa…
The Count Basie Orchestra: A Very Swingin’ Basie Christmas
Count Basie’s Orchestra continues to swing like mistletoe at the 80 year mark with this latest disc which celebrates the Coolest of Them All! Trumpeter Scotty Barnhart has been directing the band for awhile, and he hits it right here…
Barbara Dennerlein: Christmas Soul
Barbara Dennerlein brings the B3 into the Christmas stocking here with Magnus Lindgren/ts-fl-cl, Robert Ikitz/dr, Luca Alemanno/b and Abdissa Assefa/perc. You also get a couple guests, such as vocalist Zara McFarland who’s wispy-husky voice teams up with some African sounds…
Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band: Wrap This-A Big Phat Christmas
Here’s the kind of Christmas album that drives me crazy. Gordon Goodwin’s arrangements of Christmas standards like “Carol of the Bells,” Little Drummer Boy” and “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” are so rich, swinging and clever that I want to…
A MERRY MIX…Sarah McLachlan: The Classic Christmas Album, The Classic Christmas ‘80s Album, Celtic Thunder: The Classic Christmas Album, Earth Wind & Fire: The Classic Christmas Album
America over the years has created its own canon of Christmas songs. Some from traditional sources like Franz Gruber, other from unlikely sources such as John Lennon. Here are four new releases that show the variety. Sarah McLachlan mixes tradition…
Steven Davis: This is Christmas
Here’s a nicely swinging album by vocalist Steven Davis, who put out a hip album earlier this year called “What Happened to Romance.” . What’s most likeable about it is that the medium baritone takes lesser known pieces and brings them…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK*****Oded Tzur: Like A Great River
If your idea of great music is something that quietly moves your soul, you’re going to find a friend in tenor saxist Oded Tzur. He leads a quartet with Shai Maestro/p, Petros Klampanis/b and Zv Ravitz/dr through a collection of…
Peter Kogan: Some Monsterful Wonderthing
Drummer Peter Kogan takes you back to the vintage Blue Note Record days of hard bop with a swinging session of tunes ranging from quartet to octet and never a dull moment. He takes you on a street festival on…