Holiday Jazz 2025: A Vince Guaraldi celebration!

 [Web master's note: Northern California film critic Derrick Bang —  the eldest, youngest and only son of this site's primary jazz guru, the late Ric Bang — has surveyed the holiday jazz scene for more than a quarter century (!). Check out previous columns by clicking on the CHRISTMAS label below.]

 

2025 marks the 75th anniversary of Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts, which debuted in a mere seven newspapers on October 2, 1950. It’s also the 60th anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas, which debuted December 9, 1965. Likely as a result, several of the regional combos that have made a cottage industry of holiday-themed shows dominated by Guaraldi’s music from A Charlie Brown Christmas have released albums this season. They’re covered below, along with the usual assortment of tasty entries from all manner of folks.

 

Onward!

 

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Fans of straight-ahead trios will adore German jazz pianist Martin Sasse’s Swinging Christmas, which immediately went to my Constant Rotation playlist. He’s joined here by bassist Martin Gjakonovsky — one of Europe’s most prominent jazz artists — and Dutch drummer Joost van Schaik. To say these three guys are tight is an understatement; they obviously occupy each other’s minds.

The interplay between Sasse and Gjakonovsky is terrific throughout, whether the bass comps behind improv piano bridges, or vice versa.

 

The album opens with a feisty, mid-tempo reading of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” highlighted by the first of Sasse’s many inventive improv solos: both cascades of single-note melodies, and — when the bridge shifts into swing time — equally sparkling chord progressions. “White Christmas” is as an equally up-tempo finger-snapper, boasting a lightning-swift piano bridge against Gjakonovsky’s sleek walking bass … along with a nod to Count Basie, during the three-note finale.

 

The trio is equally adept at gentler numbers, such as a sweetly solemn reading of “Angels We Have Heard on High,” the hymn-like arrangement of “Lo, a Rose E’er Blooming” and a bittersweet handling of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Sasses’ improv bridge of the latter wanders all over the keyboard, with deconstructed bits of melody reflecting the emotion of the melancholy moment in 1944’s Meet Me in St. Louis, when Judy Garland sings the tune to young Margaret O’Brien. The sacred German carol “Heiligste Nacht (Most Holy Night)” also gets a hymn-like approach and lyrical keyboard bridge.

 

The pace picks up again in a dynamic handling of the German Christmas carol “Zu Bethlehem Geboren (Born in Bethlehem),” boasting lively keyboard runs with lightning-fast filigrees and a tasty (albeit too brief) drum solo. The album concludes with a kick-ass arrangement of “Sleigh Ride,” with the melody taken on pennywhistle (!) against Gjakonovsky’s fiery walking bass; you can practically hear the snow-driven sleigh runners. Sasse inserts a vibrant keyboard bridge, and then everybody brings the tune home: a great finish to a truly enjoyable album.