By Something Else Reviews
After a long winter's nap, let's rock a while to some of our Yuletide favorites—from the jazzy (Ramsey Lewis and Joe Pass) to the downhome (Koko Taylor and Kermit Ruffins), from the offbeat (the Temptations tearing up “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer") to the undiscovered (Erwilian, a terrific new find) ...
Click through the album titles for more—and to all a good night!
JOE PASS—SIX STRING SANTA (1992): Christmas jazz works best when it is reverent to those standards but still allows room for the cats to create. It's got to put listeners in a jolly mood, not hit them over the head with excessive display of chops nor get so low key for too long as to put them to sleep. That's why I like Joe Pass' take on yuletide music, and he delivered the goods in the right measure on Six String Santa just two years before his death in 1994. A congenial but persistently swinging set, not to mention providing me with an excuse to rave over this giant of jazz guitar.
THE TEMPTATIONS, “RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER" (1970): Celebratory, but not entirely reverant, the Temptations took a kid's song and transformed it into a funked-out and rollicking Yuletide hoot. This Christmas detour was all the more remarkable since the Temps had just released an uneven head-long dive in the trendy sound of the day, “Psychedelic Shack" from the same year. There is an uncommon joy from the start on “Rudolph," something that's contagious and evergreen. Maybe it's because this tune sounds more like their earlier selves, as every Temptation gets his moment.
RAMSEY LEWIS, “HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS" (1960): Honest but melodic, spiritual and swinging, Ramsey Lewis' take on a series of traditional holiday tunes could find no more surprising success than this. After all, “Here Comes Santa Claus" was originally a blandly corny hit single for Gene Autry, “The Singing Cowboy." Ramsey Lewis, it seems, can make anything listenable, even transcendent.
KOKO TAYLOR, “MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS" (1992): That big, saucy voice of hers makes Koko the modern incarnation of classic lady blues belters like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. She can lift any tune solely on the attitude she brings to it. And so is the case for “Merry, Merry Christmas." This song won't ever become quite as memorable in the holiday season as, say “Please Come Home For Christmas"—more popularly known as “Bells Will Be Ringing." That doesn't matter, though, because with Koko's sassy wailing, it provides a great excuse to sway to some prime, funky electric Chicago blues done right by one of its living legends whilst chugging egg nog and positioning yourself under the mistletoe.
ERWILIAN—MIDWINTER'S NIGHT (2010): At once neo-renaissance, new age and something akin to blissed-out bluegrass, Erwilian's holiday-themed concert recording neatly sidesteps the pre-conceived notion of sickly sweet Yuletide fare. Midwinter's Night, a soul-lifting album free of gimmicks from the season or the genre, and the perfect antidote to jingle-bell schlock. Click HERE to order Erwilian's Midwinter's Night from Amazon.
KERMIT RUFFINS, “A SAINTS CHRISTMAS" (2009): This one was appropriate, since the New Orleans Saints are the Official
