Today's holiday album was a compilation, which is always risky. Some Christmas comps rely solely on their one or two hits and are heavily padded with "like" artists or fellow labelmates. It's almost never a good, cohesive listen. The internet has created literally thousands of self-made mixtape creators (myself included) that really take pride in their work and put thought into their playlists so they are out there to find, unfortunately they don't have big business bucks to advertise. I reached back to some early compilations, maybe when money wasn't so much the motivation as much as putting together some quality tunes and came across Jingle Bell Jazz.
The cover alone kind of sells it for me. Classic, stark, and a direct representation of those old city streets outside the clubs that this very music was probably heating up the joint on their own. Very cool tracks from Dave Brucbeck and Duke Ellington, a lovely "Christmas Song" by Carmen McRae and the wildest arrangement of "Rudolph" I've ever heard by Pony Poindexter. Loved Paul Horn's interpretation of "We Three Kings" enough to go seek his whole holiday album and Herbie Hancock's "Deck The Halls" may be my new favorite rendering.
The only sidesteps seem to be the unfortunate intro/outro of the Lambert, Hendricks & Ross track that probably cracked people up in the 60's but for this superb compilation, it just kind of throws a wrench in the gears. And then the second to last track before the Mile Davis closer is a Marlowe Morris rendition of Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree that awkwardly walks the line between jazz and polka. Decent tune in an all-encompassing holiday playlist but again, it throws this particular collection of fine, fine tunes into brouhaha. But then, like I said, Miles salvages the wreckage.
A++ for being a (the?) true jazz Christmas compilation.
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