Christmastime is Here: Songs of the Season
So Thanksgiving came and went, my poinsettias 'been bought, and my balcony--bedazzled in non-LED lights (I'm sorry Al but I couldn't find them at Target)--is visible from at least half a mile away. What but the run up to Christmas: the most wonderful time of the year. I'm ready for my annual dose of Claymation specials, reruns of silly holiday flicks (e.g., Jingle All The Way), Soy Nog and Charlie Brown. And I've compiled a list of a ten songs that represent what Christmas sounds like to me after the jump.
+"Keep it Real On Christmas"[Video]
Ill Town Family, Album Unknown (1995)
In the late nineties, I took to signing off conversations with "Keep it Real on Christmas," due to my affinity for this tune, a ridiculous streak, and a dig at the grave and grossly overused mantra it embellishes, but nobody seemed to recognize the reference. Today, as I try to track down a stream, a video, even a track listing, I see why. Little luck. If I hadn't interviewed one of the songwriters (Vivian Sessoms) a year ago, I'd think I made it up. Thankfully, I found one low quality video on a bootleg YouTube. Click on the song title above for a gander of Ill Town Family don Kay Gee, Next, Gordon Chambers if I'm not mistaken, et al explaining the importance of keeping it real on Christmas day.
+"This Christmas"
Abbey Lincoln & Christian McBride, Jazz for Joy (1996)
Nobody can touch Mr. Hathaway but Ms. Lincoln gave this oft-covered favorite its due with the help of her label mate, bassist Christian McBride, despite a well-worn sixty-six year old voice. Where Hathaway was amorous, Lincoln, whose delivery was aptly behind the beat, was gregarious, skit scatting the horn parts in Heathcliff Huxtable fashion. Last check this album, which also features Betty Carter, Roy Hargrove and Nicholas Payton doing a lovely latin jazz Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, was on sale for 6.99 at iTunes.
Released as a single in 1986. A vintage jam for the gospel set.
Stevie Wonder, Someday at Christmas (1967)
I'm an unapologetic Stevie groupie but this album is choice and the title track characteristically altruistic.
Various Artists, Handel's Messiah: A Soulful Celebration (1992)
Quincy Jones conducted an assemblage of Black Hollywood for this foot-stompingly vital gospel take on Handel's composition. My middle school chorus teacher, Phyllis Byrdwell, leads Seattle's Mount Zion Baptist Church choir in a rollicking version of this every Christmas.
+"May Christmas Bring You Happiness" [MP3]
Luther Vandross, May Christmas Bring You Happiness (1991)
Big and discoish thanks to prominent strings and rhythm guitar. If not for Luther's characteristically stunning vocal performance--not yet overly smoothed out--and meticulous vocal arrangements, this could have been hokey.
Dianne Reeves, Christmas Time is Here (2004)
George Clooney's keen ear led to Reeves star turn in Good Night, and Good Luck. Now that her profile matches her pipes, more people should dig up this impeccable Christmas album from 2004. A master interpreter with a good deal of restraint, she sullies not one track with sugary sentimentality especially excelling on the sub-Saharan flared "Little Drummer Boy."
Otis Redding, White Christmas (1968)
Otis Redding transforms this holiday standard from a reminiscence to a lament. Pining was his tick, pain the usual impression.
Sounds of Blackness, The Night Before Christmas: A Musical Fantasy (1992)
NPR's Negro program, News and Notes, recently interviewed the director and new soloist of Sounds of Blackness. That they don't have much crossover appeal, leads them to be overlooked but I see them as one of the most significant Black musical groups of the past twenty years not so much in pushing boundaries--although they did a little of that--but in synthesizing African American musical traditions. I'm partial to their work during the great Ann Nesby's tenure.
Whitney Houston, A Very Special Christmas (1989)
You could call this "Crescendo with Nippy." Today so many soul starlets hammer you at hello, it's easy to forget what a performance arc sounds like. Pre-Bobby Whitney Houston owned this ditty wielding, as the lyricist wrote, "a voice as big as the sea."
Do share your Christmas favorites in the comments.
de.licio.us
digg
Furl
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Comments
There are no comments on this entry. Be the first!