Holiday Jazz 2024: An international affair

[Web master's note: Northern California film critic Derrick Bang —  the eldest, youngest and only son of this site's primary jazz guru, 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.]

 

Holiday albums appear earlier every year, so I was able to begin this annual survey in October ... and, for the next several weeks, it looked like 2024 would be a dismal year for new holiday jazz releases.

 

Happily, things improved as we slid into mid-November — thanks also to a few slightly older international albums that came to my attention — and you’ll find plenty to enjoy here (along with a few ... not so much).

 

Onward!

 

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The New York-based Interplay Jazz Orchestra, formed in 2003, has maintained a monthly residency at Stony Brook’s The Jazz Loft since 2016. The 16-member unit’s holiday-themed shows have become go-to events every December, with upcoming dates at The Jazz Loft (December 14) and Bay Shore’s Boulton Center for the Performing Arts (December 20-21).

It’s Christmas Again, the most recent of their three albums, was released just a little over a year ago. The arrangements are inventive, and solos are just as dynamic as the unison horn work. A strong sense of fun radiates from this album, which is immediately evident in a rollicking, up-tempo handling of “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” powered by Cameron Escovedo’s drumming, and highlighted by John Marshall’s tenor sax solo.

 

“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” is equally vibrant, with an intro by the full band segueing to lovely unison horns delivering the familiar melody. Jay Orig’s sassy piano solo is complemented by Dave Lobenstein’s walking bass; Baron Lewis then delivers a sparkling trumpet solo, after which the full unit returns for a thundering finale. “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” emerges as a delicious cha-cha, with solos on trombone (Joey Devassy), alto sax (Chris Donohue) and trumpet (Damien Pacheco), backed by Orig’s delicate piano filigrees. You’ll also hear a cheeky bit of horseracing’s “First Call.”

 

Sweet unison horns are backed by a percussive, toe-tapping vamp in “Little Drummer Boy,” with fanfares introducing tasty solos on alto sax (Jim Miceli) and tenor sax (Alejandro Aviles). 

 

My favorite track, though, is the 5/4 arrangement (!) of “Christmas Time Is Here.” Escovedo and Lobenstein lay down a swinging beat behind the unison horns that carry the theme, with improv shading supplied by Donohoe’s alto sax and Marshall’s tenor sax. (I played this track three times, before listening to the rest of the album.)

 

The party concludes with a leisurely, wistful reading of “Auld Lang Syne,” with unison horns backed by Escovedo’s strong beat; the arrangement has a definite “end of the evening vibe,” augmented by brief solos on tenor sax (Marshall) and trombone (Joey Devassy).

 

My sole lament is that the album favors horn solos; I wish Orig had cut loose on piano a few more times. Hold that thought for the next time!

Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen: The Unforgettable NHOP Trio Live

ACT Music
By Ric Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 1.3.08
Buy CD: The Unforgettable NHOP Trio Live

NHOP is the nickname for Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, affectionately known as "the Danish bassist with the never-ending name." He was born in 1946 and died, far too young, from a heart attack in 2005. 

He began studying piano while a child but, at age 13 — when he was tall enough — he switched to bass. He was a natural; by age 15 he was playing in Copenhagen nightclubs, accompanying both local musicians and famous U.S. jazz artists who toured through European countries. 

One such individual was Count Basie, who offered Orsted Pedersen a job with his band. The young bassist, still only 17, turned Basie down so that he could finish his schooling! 

Orsted Pedersen became a fixture with the Oscar Peterson Trio in 1973, an association that continued until 1987. Ray Brown, who had been Peterson's bassist for years, once commented that "Niels was the only other bassist who could keep up with Oscar." 

Orsted Pedersen was in constant demand; during his career he was the chosen bassist on more than 400 albums. You name the artists or groups, and he played with them. 

During the early days of jazz, the bass was the plodding marker of the beat and chord changes. Orsted Pedersen wasn't the first artist to include counter-melodic lines, and to make the bass a front-line instrument, but he advanced technique to almost unbelievable levels. He played bass like a "vertical guitar," using all four fingers on his right hand to pluck the strings. 

This technique resulted in an agility and speed that were awesome; he could play frenetic tempos, and do so for sustained periods. In addition, he provided a big, rich sound; his intonation was impeccable, and his imaginative solo work was breathtaking. Because the complexity, speed and content of his passages made it difficult for the listener to follow, he used an amplifier. 

This album features excerpts from two concerts: the first recorded in Denmark in 1999, the second in Germany in '05. Guitarist Ulf Wakenius and drummer Jonas Johansen were key members of Orsted Pedersen's trio for both events. The tracks range from Bach, NHOP originals, jazz ballads ("The Song is You," "A Nightingale Sang In Barkley Square"), bop (Charlie Parker's "My Little Suede Shoes") and a gorgeous pair of Scandinavian folk songs. 

The performances are beyond exceptional.

I haven't been able to remove this CD from my player since I received it ... a definite must-buy!

Holiday Jazz 1999: The sad homogenization of a once-lively genre

By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.16.99

[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.]


Something insidious happened, while I wasn’t paying attention.

The Christmas jazz racks have been invaded by Dark Forces.

When it came time once again to gather the albums for this annual round-up, I discovered, to my intense displeasure, that it’s no longer possible to have any reliable expectation of what’ll be found in the bins marked HOLIDAY MUSIC/JAZZ.

Time was, when you said “jazz,” people knew what you meant: classic big band stuff (Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Duke Ellington); swinging trios, quartets or quintets (Oscar Peterson, Cal Tjader, Marian McPartland); the “new wave” crowd (Miles Davis, John Coltrane); smooth pianists (Ellis Marsalis, Andre Previn, Vince Guaraldi); the new young Turks (Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, Joshua Redmond); and several sub-categories I’ve no more room to cite. The list goes on and on and on, but all these folks deliver a certain sort of sound that displays genuine talent, true rhythmic chops and — generally — some swing, darn it.

Unfortunately, as a result of two trends — the success of Windham Hill’s signature sound, and the revival of lounge music — “jazz” has been co-opted as an all-encompassing designation that includes everything from monotonous synth garbage to puerile schlock so far down the E-Z listening scale that even Sacramento’s KCTC, back in its “Classic Hits” days of the 1970s, might have thought twice before programming such junk.

Last year, I was overwhelmed by all the great stuff Santa made available for my holiday jazz library, from Christmas with the George Shearing Quintet to Etta James’ 12 Songs of Christmas; from McPartland’s grand solos and duets on An NPR Christmas to Rob McConnell and his Boss Brass’ simply smashing Big Band Christmas. For that matter, Diana Krall’s three-song EP, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, displayed not only that lady’s sublime talents, but perhaps the best production values I’ve ever encountered from an album.

That was then, this is now.

I had to work hard to find even a few albums that deserve whole-hearted endorsement this year. To be sure, several others won’t embarrass you, should they be on the player when company drops by ... but you’ll need to wade through a lot of fluff and outright drivel en route to making those purchases.

Let’s start, for no particularly reason, with Fourplay and Snowbound (Warner Bros. 9 47504-2). The group consists of Bob James (keyboards), Larry Carlton (guitars), Nathan East (bass and vocals) and Harvey Mason (drums). I approached this one guardedly, remembering Carlton’s 1995 album, Christmas at My House, which while occasionally enjoyable veered too often into the realm of sickly sweet.

The verdict here is mixed. The results are enjoyable when the quartet concentrates on solid jazz, as with the up-tempo “Angels We Have Heard on High” or the slowish, finger-snapping “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” Yet these same four fellas are just as likely to waste their time — and ours — with the monotonous baseline and dumb vocal stylings of “Snowbound,” “The Christmas Song” and a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River.”

Aside from two more good cuts — “Away in a Manger” and “ Christmas Time Is Here” — the rest of the album is eminently forgettable: too much background synth crap and la-la-la chanting. Call it humming, warbling or shading, I still hate it.