At the time I first purchased this disc, I was really into the “GRP sound” at the time.  GRP Records was known for slickly-produced contemporary jazz that for the most part avoided the triteness of what would eventually become Smooth Jazz.  It was no stretch for me to pick A GRP Christmas Collection up, as it had a few of my favorite artists on it (David Benoit, Kevin Eubanks, Chick Corea, etc.), and yet served as a sampler for other GRP artists I was not familiar with.  Their “bait” worked, as I would end up buying discs from a few more artists I found on this album, such as Special EFX, Yutaka, Daryl Stuermer and Dave Valentin.  Due to the “family” sound of the label, most of the tracks sit very well together.

Highlights for me are Yutaka’s vocal cover of “This Christmas,” the unique Kevin Eubanks arrangement of “Silver Bells,” and David Benoit’s re-recording of his arrangement of “Carol Of The Bells.”  Stuermer’s contribution is “The Little Drummer Boy” that thankfully features his smooth guitar rather than the typical rat-a-tat-tat snare drum that mars many other versions of this song.  Dave Grusin (the “G” behind GRP) himself closes out the disc with the playful and reflective “Some Children See Him.”

This album is somewhat out of print, but is available on-demand as a CD-R from Amazon if you can’t find a used copy.  Or, you can also download it.  The follow-up GRP Christmas Collection discs have a couple of highlights each but in my opinion, this one sets the standard and is the best of the bunch.  Well worth finding!