Holiday Jazz 2019: Plenty of tasty stocking-stuffers

[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 23 years, with lengthy columns that just keep growing. Check out previous columns by clicking on the CHRISTMAS label below.]

Let’s start with a blast from the past, finally (finally!) making its debut on CD.

Longtime holiday jazz fans have always prized the Ramsey Lewis Trio’s two classic albums: 1961’s Sound of Christmas and 1964’s More Sounds of Christmas. Both initially were released by Argo and then reissued by Cadet and Chess; the first one went digital in 1989, first on Chess/MCA, and then on Verve. The second album logically should have hit CD simultaneously … but that didn’t happen.

Three decades passed (!). Then, just a few months ago, Verve quietly issued More Sounds of Christmas on CD. Modern listeners now can delight in the trio’s droll handling of “Snowbound,” “We Three Kings” and “Jingle Bells” — the latter a particularly saucy arrangement — and numerous other seasonal chestnuts, along with a couple of originals (“Egg Nog” and “Plum Puddin’ ”). 

The hitch: Five of the 10 tracks are accompanied by syrupy strings, which’ll raise an eyebrow or two. (Oh, well.)

Folks just starting a holiday jazz collection will be delighted by New Continent’s Christmas Hits: Jazz, Lounge and Rhythm & Blues. This three-disc anthology offers 25 iconic tracks in each of the three genres. The Christmas Jazz CD features classics by Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Kenton, Mel Tormé, Chet Baker and many others. Christmas Lounge is laden with vocals by Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis, Judy Garland, Eartha Kitt, Julie London and others. Christmas Rhythm & Blues, finally, is a smorgasbord featuring The Cadillacs, Brenda Lee, Elvis, Chuck Berry, The Drifters and much more.

With 75 tracks for slightly less than $13, you can’t go wrong!

As this survey was going to bed, Santa dropped a copy of up-and-coming vocalist Rebecca Angel’s CD single cover of “Santa Baby.”Considerable bravery is required to tackle this classic, in the wake of Eartha Kitt’s iconic 1953 version, along with respectable later covers by Kylie Minogue and Madonna. To her credit, Angel has the appropriate little-girl coo, and her flirty reading is backed by a tasty quintet: Dennis Angel (Flugelhorn), Jason Miles (keyboards), Jonah Prendergast (guitar), Reggie Washington (bass) and Brian Dunne (drums).

But will it stand the test of time? Hard to say. 

Now, let’s see what else Santa brought jazz fans this year (or recently, anyway) …

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Steve Slagle: Dedication

Panorama Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Dedication

This new release by alto/flute/soprano reed man and composer Steve Slagle grew on me. It begins nicely and gets increasingly better, as we progress through its nine tracks.

Slagle isn’t a jazz newcomer, but he’s not as well known as many top-flight musicians. He has had plenty of experience, but is better recognized by the artists with whom he has played, than by their fan base. Slagle has advanced degrees from Berklee and the Manhattan Schools of Music; he has written arrangements and performed with Charles Mingus’ Big Band; he has played with Lionel Hampton, Jack McDuff,

Carla Bley and Woody Herman; and is now fronting his own groups.

The unit backing him here includes pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Scott Colley, drummer  Bill Stewart, percussionist Roman Diaz, and guitarist Dave Stryker. Slagle composed all but two of the charts; the exceptions are Stryker’s “Corazon” and Wayne Shorter’s “Charcoal Blues.”

Slagle’s sax “sound” is different than most. Art Pepper (as one example) produced  “cleaner,” more rapid phrasing — like a popcorn popper — while Slagle’s approach is “earthier.” That said, he sure swings. He’s also adept on the soprano sax and flute.

Although a lot of his work — and compositions — are based on a Latin sound, most of this release features grooving, bluesy modern lines that make use of multiple key changes and up-tempo phrasing. This is particularly true of the menu’s latter half.

This is a nice, swinging, album: Slagle is a genuine pleasure to experience.

The Stryker/Slagle Band: Latest Outlook

Zoho
By Ric Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 5.3.07
Buy CD: Latest Outlook

The Stryker/Slagle "band" actually is a quartet: Dave Stryker on guitar, Steve Slagle on alto and soprano sax, Jay Anderson on bass, and Billy Hart on drums. 

For this session, they also added tenor sax player Joe Lovano on a couple of tracks. 

The group is based in New York and works primarily in the East Coast area. Although all the members are excellent musicians, only Hart and Lovano are jazz "names": Hart has played in numerous groups, while Lovano is best known for his membership in one of Woody Herman's Herds. 

All but one of the tunes on this CD were composed and arranged by either Stryker or Slagle. The one exception is "Self Portrait In Three Colors," written by Charles Mingus. 

Most of the tracks follow a format in which the guitar and featured horns play a relatively tricky theme in unison, after which each artist follows with a solo, and then the group concludes with a repeat of the unison theme. This style is reminiscent of the many groups that created the "West Coast sound" back in the 1950s and up through the '70s ... and, for me, the routine verges on boring after a while. 

On the other hand, the solo work is truly excellent, and the beat established by Hart and Anderson really drives each track. 

This is a promising group, but less complex arrangements and more solo work would have raised my rating.