Jazz Yule Love II

[GA Russell]

Maybe it's just me, but I haven't felt like there has been a lot to offer in regard to new Christmas albums in the past five years. I think we were spoiled in the 90s when so much great Christmas music of the past was released for the first time on CD, plus the occasional CD from the likes of Wynton Marsalis or some compilations from the Young Lions.

Last year I got Michael Franks' Christmas album from 2003 called Watching the Snow. It's a great one, if you don't mind that all of the songs are originals and secular. I'm looking forward to pulling that one out the day after Thanksgiving.

Three years ago I reviewed a new release for AAJ called Jazz Yule Love. It was a Christmas compilation from the Mack Avenue label. As I recall, Stix Hooper, the label's a&r man and former Jazz Crusader, had each of the label's artists finish his recording session with a Christmas song. After a year or so of recording, Hooper had enough to issue a CD.

It left me cold at the time. Part of the problem was that I opened it up fairly early in November and before I was in the mood to listen to Christmas music. But as Christmas albums go, this one was definitely not cheery. All of the songs were good taken out of context, but together the album was somewhat dreary. Last year Jazz Yule Love clicked for me, and I started to enjoy it more than I had in the past. This year, it's not an album I'll be listening to by itself, but I'll definitely include it in the mix when I am listening to more than one at a time.

So now this year Mack Avenue has issued a new Christmas compilation entitled Jazz Yule Love II. I would give it four stars out of five. It is not dreary like the 2003 edition was, and the music is quite good.

The two standouts for me are the first two cuts on the CD: trumpeter Sean Jones doing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and Gerald Wilson with an all star lineup in his orchestra doing Jingle Bells.

Other artists include Bud Shank doing Let It Snow, Oscar Castro-Neves playing two classical pieces on accoustic guitar, a good vocalist I am unfamiliar with named Ilona Knopfler singing two standards, and a group called the Hot Club of Detroit (which borrows from the swing style of Django Reinhardt's group) making a jazz version of The Chipmonk Song. Oscar Brown, Jr., contributed the only original of the album in what I suppose was one of his final recordings.

The album is 11 songs totalling 48 minutes. It won't be the best Christmas album of my collection, but I'm glad I have it, and it will suffice for my new Christmas album of the year.

[chris olivarez]

Thanks for the heads up.

[robviti]

...All of the songs were good taken out of context, but together the album was somewhat dreary...

and what's wrong with a dreary christmas?

Merry Christmas , I hope you have a white one ,

For me its blue.

Blue Christmas , that’s the way you see it when you’re feeling blue

Blue Xmas , when you’re blue at Christmas time you see right through ,

All the waste , all the sham , all the haste ,

And plain old bad taste .

Side walk Santa Claus’s are much , much too thin ,

They’re wearing rented costumes , false beards and big fat phony grins ,

And nearly everybodys standing round and holding out their empty hand or tin cup .

Gimme gimme gimme , gimme gimme ,

Fill my stocking up .

All the way up .

It’s a time when the greedy give a dime to the needy .

Blue Christmas , all the paper tinsel and the fal de ral ,

Blue Xmas , people trading gifts that matter not at all .

What I call ,

Fal de ral ,

Bitter doll……..Fal de ral.

Lots of hungry homeless children in your own back yards ,

While you’re very very busy addressing ,

Twenty zillion Christmas cards .

Now Yuletide is the season to receive or to give or to share ,

But all you decent do gooders rush around and rant and rave and loudly blare

Merry Christmas , I hope yours is a bright one

But for me it bleeds .

Blue Christmas (To whom it may concern )

Miles Davis 1962

[GA Russell]

I've been digging Jazz Yule Love I and II all month long.

I appreciate Vol. I much more than I did in the past. I came to the conclusion that I don't like Teddy Edwards' Silent Night on it, so I've been skipping over that one track, and have really enjoyed the album.

The first two tracks of Vol. II no longer stand out as obviously the best. It's all good. I had never heard of the Hot Club of Detroit before, but now I'm thinking about getting one of their albums. They're good!

Another act to watch is the singer Ilona Knopfler. Her voice is not very distinctive, but her recordings of I'll Be Home for Christmas and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas are solid contributions to the album.

[ghost of miles]

Yeah, I liked the Shank & played it on the radio. Are these all-new recordings?

[GA Russell]

Are these all-new recordings?

I believe so, Ghost.