Rating:
Genre:
Holiday
Release Date: 10/14/2008
Run Time: 0:00
Jazz and blues have both had their share of Christmas recordings over the years, and Christmas jazz can easily work well alongside Christmas blues -- which is what happens on
Putumayo Presents: Jazz & Blues Christmas. This Christmas-oriented compilation has one foot in jazz and the other foot in the blues; the ten-track CD is fairly diverse, ranging from vocal jazz on Canadian singer
Emilie-Claire Barlow's playful performance of
"Santa Baby" to electric urban blues on
B.B. King's
"Christmas Celebration." Many of the tracks combine jazz and blues elements, including the late
Charles Brown's
"Santa's Blues," Topsy Chapman and
Lars Edegran's version of
"The Christmas Blues" and
the Dukes of Dixieland's arrangement of
"Merry Christmas, Baby." Most of the selections are vocal-oriented; the exception is
the Ramsey Lewis Trio's 1964 recording of
Gene Autry's
"Here Comes Santa Claus," which is instrumental soul-jazz. Back in the 1960s, the terms "soul-jazz" and "organ combo" were often used interchangeably, but
Lewis -- like
Gene Harris,
Horace Silver, and
Ray Bryant -- demonstrated that soul-jazz could also be piano-driven, and
"Here Comes Santa Claus" is a perfect example of the pianistic side of soul-jazz. If there is anything on
Jazz & Blues Christmas that essentially falls outside of jazz and blues, it is
Ray Charles' version of
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" -- which is more soul than anything. But even though
Charles was primarily an R&B artist, he could easily perform jazz or blues (as well as gospel or country). And he doesn't feel the least bit out of place on this 2008 release (in fact, many blues artists are putting classic soul, including
Charles' hits, in their repertoire these days). Lasting only 33 minutes,
Jazz & Blues Christmas could have easily been another 30 or 40 minutes longer and given listeners more bang for their buck. But even so, this is an enjoyable compilation that thoughtfully reminds us of the connection between Christmas jazz and Christmas blues.
~Alex Henderson, All Music Guide
;)
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