by Henry Cherry
1. Christmas at Kmart – Root Boy Slim
Foster Mackenzie, aka Root Boy Slim, heckled George Bush in their Yale fraternity. Here, then, is the sound of that heckling delivered as a depraved Christmas carol. A dose of mid 70s proto-incorrigibility. Always good for a curl of the lip.
2. Jingle Bells – Michael Bennett and the Dixieland Ramblers
A sweet New Orleans tinge to the holiday seasonal madness, this has been around nearly 20 years now and delivers the blast of year end jive in a song that works itself a showcase for producer Bennett’s clarinet and bandleader Kevin Clark’s dynamic trumpet. Hot coffee and hot jazz make for a hot jingle bells ring.
3. Christmas in Prison – John Prine
I spent one winter holiday fighting with my brother on the lawn in front of my mother and stepfather’s house. It was late Christmas morning, and as the snowflakes dressed the neighborhood in the first snow of the year we traded blows. When we stopped, I looked over to the neighbor’s house and saw their two young children with mouths agape staring out the window at us. I waved. My brother did too. Afterwards, I suggested we listen to this song, but only Jack and I laughed. There’s so much more inside of it than humor. “The search light in the big yard/Swings round with the gun/And spotlights the snowflakes/Like the dust in the sun/It’s Christmas in prison/There’ll be music tonight/I’ll probably get homesick/I love you/ Goodnight.” Thanks John Prine, wherever you are now, you’re still coming down in the snow somewhere this holiday.
4. Silver Bells – Booker T. and the MGs
Try not to shake it to this slow burn while the roast is in the oven and the popcorn strings are being hung with tinsel across the archway to the living room. It’s the miraculous sound of southern funk stretched across camaraderie.
5. We Free Kings – Rashaan Roland Kirk
Kirk and company fire up a somewhat staid classic year-end jam with a woodpile of incendiary jam. Art Davis on upright, Charlie Persips on the skins, Richard Wyland on piano, and Kirk on flute and tenor saxophone and manzello. It’s soul bop fury at it’s Christmas finest.
6. Skyline Jig – The Chieftains
In the early nineties, everyone was Irish. Blame Shane MacGowan’s poetic lyrics and Bono’s unabashed starshine for that. But the Chieftains were keen on the sentiment, and even keener to get a collection of music out that you’d return to year in and year out. The opener is a beautiful collaboration between the bells of a Dublin church and the band. But it’s their take on the traditional Skyline Jig that ices out all comers.
7. Christmas Blues aka Santa – Lightnin’ Hopkins
From the scrambling run on his guitar that opens the song, Hopkins tinges his holiday ode with dark corners. At once sexual, grievous, and hopeful, this song sounds just like the season.
8. Sugar Rum Cherry – Duke Ellington
When Ellington rearranged Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, the whole world should have stopped and taken note. This might be the most monumental take on classical that Ellington did, arranging something that lives outside of its holiday allegiance. This is the stamp of Ellington’s ingenuity and ranks him as one of the United States’s best composers, jazz or otherwise, all while interpreting another composer’s musicality. He outdid Tchaikovsky.
9. Messiaen – Helen Gillet / James Singleton
Helen Gillet & James Singleton, “Messiaen,” from the album Ferdinand (2013)
While not exactly holiday oriented, I take this piece of cello and upright bass as a panacea to the crush of traffic, sales overloads, and year end commerciality. It’s elemental and calming and filled with intrigue. Best of all, it’s meditative. On a recent trip to Yosemite, the dog and I hiked through snow while accompanied by its majesty.
10. It Came Upon the Midnight Clear – Hank Jones/ Charlie Haden
Ella’s pianist and Ornette’s bassist combined to make a couple of duo records that are unparalleled in structure and verve. This comes from those sessions and is just a reverie of beautiful playing on the old American carol. This is really a twofer, as it was released as a digital single with “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman.” Singular music from two of jazzes late greats.
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Henry Cherry is Jazz Critic at Riot Material Magazine. Mr. Cherry is a photographer, writer and documentary filmmaker who lives in Hollywood. His work has appeared in Huck, PBS, OC Weekly, Los Angeles Review of Books, Artillery, and LA Weekly. A documentary film on master jazz musician Henry Grimes is in the works. For contact information go to his website: henrycherry.com
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