Benny Benack III and friends: Swinging In The Holidays

With a warm, wood-paneled vintage glow, a new Christmas collection inhabits the space formerly reserved for top-flight crooners like Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett: blending pop and jazz into comfort food for your ears.

While few of the "next-gen" (as the album's publicity tag puts it) performers here will be known to those unfamiliar with the contemporary New York City scene, their chops are undeniable and the arrangements flattering to the performers' strengths.

If the artists may be largely unfamiliar, the songs are friends of long acquaintance—being drawn from the Great American Songbook. (This is entirely consistent with the purposes of the Jazz at the Ballroom foundation, which produced this album through the Songbook Ink label.)

Wyatt Michael's sonic similarity to Sinatra is startling. He is not an impersonator, he simply has a similar range and has developed a delivery that cannot help but invite flattering comparisons. The Depression-era chestnut "Button Up Your Overcoat" is delivered in a near- conversational tone, pianist Konrad Paszkudzki framing Michael's vocals with a sparkling touch that adds to the Christmasy feels. He delivers Sinatra's own "Mistletoe and Holly" in an equally relaxed mood, the trio of Paszkudzki, bassist Dylan Shamat and drummer Kevin Congleton laying down a classic jazz foundation.

Vanessa Perea and Rob Edwards channel the joyful professionalism of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé on three duets: "Baby, It's Cold Outside," "That Holiday Feeling" and "We Wish You the Merriest." But where 'Steve & Eydie' tended for an up-tempo, flag- waving take on most songs, Perea and Edwards dial it back to a smokey romance. Backed only by the same trio as behind Michaels, they have the same playful banter as Lawrence & Gormé—with the added bonus of Edwards' gorgeous trombone solos (shades of Jack Teagarden!). Olivia Chindamo's frenetic take on Irving Berlin's "Snow" is as fun as any Christmas song you are likely to hear, while her more traditional interpretation of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is supper club done right.

Pianist and singer Champian Fulton combines a blues-based keyboard style with straight-ahead jazz approach on vocals. She turns "Winter Wonderland" into a jazz standard (aided by her father, Stephen Fulton, on flugelhorn). "Santa Baby" is played as a slow romp, while she runs through a fast-paced "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm." And her rich, mezzo-soprano voice anchors a stately take on "The Christmas Song."

Now based out of Paris, former New York denizen Angela Grey confidently swings through Irving Berlin's classic "White Christmas," floating just above the band, while a lush string arrangement adds even more elgance.

The set closes out with Lucy Wijnands' classy jazz take on "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?," her rich voice a gorgeous instrument all its own.

Finally, credit needs to be given to the instrumentalists who are backing the singers. As mentioned above, the Paszkudzki piano trio is stellar throughout. And Felix Peikli's clarinet lends a touch of warm romance to every track he is on, including perhaps most markedly behind, and then alongside, Wijnands, clarinet and voice engaged in an utterly beguiling duet.

The album is available as a 12-track vinyl LP, a CD with 16, and an 18-track digital download.

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