Tag Archives: holiday

Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass: Christmas Album [Christmas Album Countdown]

Christmas Album (Spkg)OK, so it may not be a profound musical masterpiece, and not everyone may have heard it or own it (unlike the iconic Whipped Cream and Other Delights album, which everyone’s dad seemed to own), but it was not Christmas at our house unless the Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Christmas Album was spinning on the Magnavox console several times through December.  Even to this day, not a year goes by that I don’t at least play it once.

It was also the first Tijuana Brass CD I ever bought, a rare German import that I lucked into courtesy of an audiophile store nearby, a few years before A&M would start releasing TJB CDs in the US.  Shout Factory has this album sounding better than ever on CD, yet I always pull out my vinyl copy and play that, as it brings back a lot of memories.

Musically it has an upbeat yet easygoing feeling to all of the tracks.  Alpert handled arrangements for the musical side, yet he enlisted west coast jazz legend Shorty Rogers to handle the vocal and string arrangements.  Many familiar holiday tunes get Tijuana Brass arrangements (such as “Winter Wonderland,” “Jingle Bells” and “Sleigh Ride”), while a few surprises are in order.  The rarely performed “The Bell That Couldn’t Jingle” (penned by Burt Bacharach) makes an appearance, and the album closes on a calm note with Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”  It is a bit different than other TJB albums, but a welcome change of pace from that tried and true formula.  And now that it’s December 24th, it’s about time I gave it a spin…

Thanks for joining us in this Christmas Album Countdown series!  Enjoy your holidays, and we’ll see you back here before you know it!

John Pizzarelli’s “Let’s Share Christmas [Christmas Album Countdown]

Let's Share ChristmasA perennial favorite, jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli serves up a dozen holiday favorites dressed up in his fluid guitar and smooth vocal crooning on his holiday album Let’s Share Christmas.  In addition to his own trio, Pizzarelli teams with an all-star cast of arrangers on this album, enlisting the talents of Don Sebesky, John Clayton, Patrick Williams, Michel Legrand, Johnny Mandel and others on the varied tracks.  The mood ranges from a trio performance of “Sleigh Ride” to big band blow-outs (“Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow”) and string-backed crooning (on the title track).  Despite the variation in styles, the overall sound of Pizzarelli holds the whole thing together into one enjoyable holiday package.  If anything, the album reaches styles of music from decades past, which we could still use today in this fast-paced modern world of ours.  This holiday package is like musical comfort food for everyone tired of the mall blasting the same dozen or so songs at us for months on end.  It is out of print on CD but thankfully still available as an MP3 download from Amazon.

Various Artists: Jingle Bell Rock (Time-Life) [Christmas Album Countdown]

The Rock 'N' Roll Era: Jingle Bell Rockin 1987, I guess I was bitten by the same CD buying bug that many were: I bought into the Time-Life “Rock ‘n’ Roll Era” series of CDs.  Thankfully I found that the musical selection on these were fine for my purposes, although the sound often suffered a bit.  It did enable me to amass a good collection of “oldies” that I otherwise never would have bought.  One surprising favorite came my way during the holidays–the compilation Jingle Bell Rock.  A couple of the Motown tracks need to be skipped (the Temptations’ “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” is narcoleptic at best), but for the most part it is a very enjoyable and crowd-pleasing collection of holiday favorites.

On here are tracks by Jan and Dean (“Frosty the Snowman”, rescued from obscurity), The Ventures (“Sleigh Ride”), Jack Scott (“There’s Trouble Brewin'”), The O’Jays (“Christmas Ain’t Christmas Without The One You Love”) and Dodie Stevens (“Merry, Merry Christmas Baby”).  The usual suspects are here also (“JIngle Bell Rock”, “Run, Rudolph Run” and “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”) and Elton John’s “Step into Christmas” finishes out the disc with the most recent song in the collection.  You can find Jingle Bell Rock if you look hard enough, although you can find another variation or two that changes out and/or skimps on the 25 tracks that this disc offers.

Manhattan Transfer: The Christmas Album [Christmas Album Countdown]

Christmas AlbumAs I prepared to make a few notes about this “new” album, I took a look at the date on which it was released…and am still in disbelief that The Christmas Album was released almost 20 years ago!  Time flies, and yet this recording still sounds as fresh as the day it was released.  While you might expect a Manhattan Transfer recording to feature four-part vocal harmonies and jazz, they reached a bit beyond and enlisted the great Johnny Mandel to handle orchestrations and arrangements, and what you end up with is a beautifully warm and lush holiday recording that transcends musical boundaries.  The rockers and headbangers probably would never warm to it, but it is one of those nice “family” discs that, thanks to the Mandel/Tim Hauser production, can sound lush without straying into sappy Muzak.  Even Tony Bennett pops in for a guest appearance on “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)”.  What really impressed me was the disc opening with the lesser known “Snowfall,” a wintery song penned by Claude Thornhill decades ago.  And, the album closes with the Lennon/McCartney “Goodnight.”  As with any ManTran album, the harmonies are smooth, and each of the members gets their turn in the spotlight.  Warmly recommended!

A Merry Henry Mancini Christmas [Christmas Album Countdown]

Greatest Christmas SongsAt the holidays, we often look back to our childhood fondly for favorite things we enjoyed back in those simpler years.  I have my share of memories, including a handful of holiday albums that even today, get at least one spin during the busy holiday season.  One of those I spin is A Merry Mancini Christmas.  Thankfully, RCA has chosen to commit that album to CD, but has also released an enhanced version (featuring a new transfer from the 3-track masters) called Greatest Christmas Songs.  The running order has changed, and a few tracks have been added, but the music remains the same.  (It’s nothing a programmable CD player can’t fix!)  One of those extra tracks is the lush and jazzy “Snowfall” which hails from the Mancini Touch LP from the late 50s.  The music is what you’d expect from mid 60s’ Mancini:  a few medleys of popular upbeat Christmas songs strung together on one side in more of a jazzy pop-standards vocal configuration, and the quiet and more reflective songs with strings on the flip side.  The vocalists, incidentally, include Mancini’s wife Ginny, who was an in-demand singer herself back in the day.  One true highlight is the Mancini-penned “Carol For Another Christmas” which opened the second side of the original LP.  Well worth seeking out if you’re a fan of Mancini’s!