Swingle Bells: Holiday jazz 2018

[Web master’s note: Northern California film critic Derrick Bang — still the eldest, youngest and only son of this site’s primary jazz guru, Ric Bang — has surveyed the holiday jazz scene for 22 years, with lengthy columns that just keep growing. Check out previous columns by clicking on the CHRISTMAS label below.]

So much terrific new Christmas music, and most of the season’s publicity is going to Captain Kirk.

The rest of the media attention focuses on releases by John Legend, Pentatonix, Lindsey Stirling and Eric Clapton (!). Jazz isn’t even an afterthought this year.

There is no justice.

Okay, fine; 87-year-old William Shatner deserves credit for longevity and a willingness to step wayoutside his comfort zone, and he was smart enough — with Shatner Claus — to align himself with top-flight engineers and an impressive roster of guest stars, that ranges from Judy Collins and Todd Rundgren, to Rick Wakeman and Iggy Pop.

But trust me: You can do better.

You won’t find any heavyweights or readily familiar names among this year’s roster of holiday jazz releases, although Joey Alexander should prompt a smile of recognition. But that’s not the point: The goal here is cool seasonal sounds, and it’s always gratifying when terrific material comes from hitherto unknowns, who subsequently make it to your preferred playlist.

So what are we waiting for? Let’s dive in!

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Proving once again that jazz is an international phenomenon, this year’s round-up starts with Italian trumpeter Fabrizio Bosso’s Merry Christmas Baby. Bosso has played his horn since age 5, and his career took off with the release of his first album in 2000; subsequent projects included collaborations with Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, Dianne Reeves and a veritable Who’s Who of Italian jazz stars.

His quartet on this tasty holiday release features Julian Oliver Mazzariello (piano), Jacopo Ferrazza (acoustic double bass) and Nicola Angelucci (drums), and their interplay is tight. Most arrangements hover in the mid-tempo range, and Bosso grants ample time for generous solos by his compatriots.

The album-opening handling of “Winter Wonderland” is typical of the delights to come: a straight-ahead arrangement with Bosso’s sweet trumpet introducing the melody, then yielding the floor to Mazzariello and Ferrazza. The former’s quiet keyboard solos introduce “Grown-Up Christmas List” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” with Bosso’s horn taking over for the respective melodies, against gentle piano and bass comping.

The quartet’s delivery of “Silent Night” is a lot of fun: Angelucci lays down a terrific New Orleans-style beat that gives this tune an atypically peppy reading, with some wild solos on trumpet and piano. Mazzariello opens “Let It Snow” with some stride piano, then shares the stage with Bosso for what becomes a bouncy little duet. The entire combo goes wild on “Jingle Bells,” which kicks off with some lively drumming, sassy trumpet and “shimmering” piano riffs, eventually yielding to trumpet and piano solos that shoot off into the stratosphere.

Guest vocalist Karima’s wistful handling of “The Christmas Song” is backed by gentle trumpet and piano comping, both instruments supplying lyrical solos when she pauses during the bridge. Walter Ricci offers an equally delicate vocal on “What’re You Doing New Year’s Eve,” against soft trumpet and piano; he has more fun scatting throughout a lively “Jingle Bell Rock,” with Angelucci shifting into swing time during a bridge that features nifty keyboard and trumpet solos.

Bosso’s switch to muted trumpet is a cute touch on “Merry Christmas, Baby,” as you can almost hear the lyrics emanate from his expressive horn; the song also features some sultry byplay between piano and bass during the bridge. All and all, this is a nifty album that deserves plenty of rotation in your holiday library.

Holiday Jazz 2002: Too much merry, not enough soul

By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.12.02

[Web master’s note: Northern California film critic Derrick Bang — the eldest, youngest and only son of this site’s jazz guru, Ric Bang — has surveyed the holiday jazz scene since the late 1990s, with lengthy columns that just keep growing.]


Kenny G has a lot to answer for.

Until he came along and turned “smooth jazz” into a legitimate music store category, seasonal holiday jazz was restricted to folks with authentic jazz chops, who really knew their way around a keyboard, sax, trumpet or set of drums. Releases were few and far between, and fans were grateful for a season that brought two or three great albums.

All that changed in the 1990s, when what my father contemptuously dismisses as “elevator jazz” infiltrated the genre. Suddenly, inventive arrangements and finger-snappin’ solos were replaced by background strings, mawkish choruses and percussion licks so monotonous that they sounded like just what they were, in many cases: computer-generated white noise.

And it got much worse in 1994, when Kenny G released Miracles: The Holiday Album, which sold untold millions and paved the way for an avalanche of smooth jazz that all but buried the category.

In fairness, not all smooth jazz is garbage, just as all “pure jazz” isn’t automatically superior. There’s a time and place for improvisational jazz that gets weird for the sheer sake of artistic license, but I’d argue that holiday songs probably aren’t the proper venue for such wild experimentation. The best holiday jazz should retain enough of the central melody to be recognized, while allowing various soloists an opportunity to strut their stuff.

Sadly, straight-ahead Christmas jazz compilations are few and far between this 2002 holiday season ... although we do have yet another release by the redoubtable Kenny G (about which, more in a bit). Meanwhile, fans will be tempted by quite a few smooth jazz productions, some of which ... well ... leave much to be desired.

Let’s begin with young trumpeter Chris Botti’s December (Columbia CK 86864), an album with a serious identity crisis. Half the cuts feature only Botti and some core sidemen, and a few of these are a treat: A septet arrangement of “Little Drummer Boy” is lively and fun, while a quintet arrangement of “Let It Snow” is by far the album’s best cut. Botti and his friends also deliver nice readings of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” and “Winter Wonderland.”

On the other hand, “The Christmas Song” (which opens the album) and several other cuts are drenched in so many strings that I’m inclined to believe Botti gets a kickback on the sale of catgut and nylon. Worse still are two cuts — “Perfect Day” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” — on which the young trumpet player sings. (Memo to Mr. Botti: Keep your lips wrapped around your trumpet.) All this fluff does nothing but detract from the core musicians struggling to be heard beneath these overproduced tracks, each so overwrought that all life and spontaneity have been sucked away.

So: Does one purchase an album for just five or six engaging cuts? That’s your call.