Jazz Holiday Bonus
We have our friend Japhy to thank for today’s post. My inbox contained the following note under the subject “Jazz Collector Website – Jazz Holiday Playlist.”
Hi Al,A decade or so ago I went on a mission to create the ultimate Jazz Christmas (or Holiday, if you prefer) collection. I dug deep, scoured the darkest recesses of the internet, searched every conceivable keyword on iTunes, etc., and ended up with an 8-CD collection (the days of CD burning!) that I called “Yule Be Swinging”.A few years ago I recreated the collection on Spotify (some tunes weren’t available, and some come and go) as a 10-hour, 152-song playlist. They’re all my personal selections, of course, instrumental and vocal, and I tried to stick to “classic Jazz”. There are certainly countless tunes not represented (e.g., I didn’t just dump the entire Ramsey Lewis record on there), and I tried to avoid having 10 versions of any one song, for example (“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” came close!). Point being, anyone can certainly say, “Man! How can you not have Song X on here?!” And that’s fine; this is just were I landed. That said, I’m always looking for any I missed, obscurities in particular.Anyway, I thought perhaps Jazz Collector readers might enjoy the playlist as we head into the holidays. I do not benefit from this financially in any regard whatsoever — I’m simply sharing the fruits of my labor, and it’d be nice to know that others are enjoying it. If you’d like to include the link in a post, please feel welcome to. If not, I absolutely understand.https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Fplaylist%2F7aaq0ThlcjdD79wJuLuHbL%3Fsi%3D56846bed3c6c47a0&data=05%7C01%7C%7C1a3106b666be4cb2e9b708dacbf2cda8%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638046540948788073%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=g3t%2FqiOVFd57uCsio3G1NO04vSLtPnCRAQPkfjZk%2BRM%3D&reserved=0Have a Swinging Holiday!Japhy
I replied as follows: Hey, Japhy. Thanks for sharing. If it’s OK with you, I’ll post it on Jazz Collector, just as you sent it. Might want to add this gem, below, from an album called Christmas at the Monterey General Store, featuring me on rhythm guitar and my friend Dan Axelrod on lead. 🙂
A very fine playlist. Thanks even some new stuff for an old jazz christmas buff like me!
Looking forward to this, thanks!
Al, thank you for sharing, and to those who dial it up, I hope it adds to your enjoyment of the holidays, as Clark Griswold would say.
One exciting thing that happened is that I found that the obscure Chet Baker LP “Silent Nights” (released in 1986, with a guy named Christopher Mason) has made its way to Spotify! Curiously, the original vinyl release of this is not permitted to be sold on Discogs. I’ve never seen that before. Anyone know why that would be? Anyway, it’s late-in-life Chet, so the playing isn’t terribly strong and the solos are brief but it’s nice.
Merry Jazzmas!!
If you haven’t heard the Rob McConnell Boss Brass “Big Band Christmas” (Concord) check it out on Itunes. Of the dozens and dozens of holiday music cds I received over the years as a jazz radio host it’s my all-time favorite!
Japhy – it is probably either a bootleg recording or they think that it is one. That and extreme hate speech stuff are the only reasons I’ve ever seen something be banned.
Ebay Don Pullen /Milford Graves live at Yale 5 hours left just shy of $9000.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20tnR2LtLK0
My favorite Chanukah Jazz song