Jazz Articles

Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our Coming Soon page. Read our daily album reviews.

385

Album Review

Various Artists: Groovin' Jazz Christmas

by Dave Hughes
December 1, 2001

It’s a smooth jazz Christmas. Most of this program is exactly what you’d expect: sax lead, programmed backgrounds and drum loops, lightweight improvisations (although Doc Powell’s guitar on “Let It Snow” is appealing). The first eight songs stay close to the formula, and it’s pretty predictable, mechanical, and at times downright sterile. But whoever sequenced the CD saved the best for last; the final three songs are the most rewarding of the lot. “Christmas Eve”, the only original on the ...