| This short collection of six well-known Christmas tunes presented in Latin style makes you fell like the Girl from Ipanema just dropped down your chimney. The CD was released last year, following hard upon the first JazznSamba CD, Postcard. Unfortunately, it's distribution was curtailed by the postal strike. A national launch to give it the sendoff it deserves is now planned for Dec. 15 in the Toronto jazz club known as the Montreal Bistro. Originating from an inspired session of just fooling around with a few Christmas tunes when asked for seasonal songs during a Lunenburg pub gig, Christmas Card evolved from a just-kidding version dreamed up by Skip Beckwith of We Three Kings in five-four time (the original is in six-eight - don't do the math, just listen - it works). Next came a jazzy Jingle Bells, with tenor/soprano saxophonist Mike Murley coming out of the background where he had been playing fills and countermelodies, plunging down the musical slopes in a flying toboggan ride that puts the wind in your hair and fills your eyes with snow. Alas it's so short - but then so are most really good toboggan rides. | Kathie Claire Shaw has found a good voice for this repertoire. She sings with lightness and a teasing shake at the ends of phrases. Guitarist Paul, whose Brazilian experiences gave rise to the JazznSamba repertoire some three years or so ago, sometimes adds his pleasant baritone to Shaw's mezzo. Skip Beckwith anchors the trio which expands to include drums, sax, and a chorus of friends for Santa Claus is Coming To Town. Christmas Card is a charming addition to traditional seasonal pop music. The only carols are We Three Kings and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. For the rest, Let It Snow and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas round out the repertoire and and CD ends with a JazznSamba original called The Best of Christmas. Nice. A mulled wine would be good about now. |
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By Christmas Day, you'll probably be jingle-belled out, overwhelmed by the torrent of holiday season music. Yet buried in the morass are some enterprising versions of traditional and sacred tunes that pass the acid test: You might still want to play them after Boxing Day. |
The Maritime group Jazznsamba offers Christmas Card (conveniently on the Jazznsamba label) a pleasing half-hour of just six songs from sweet-voiced Kathie Claire Shaw, with bassist Skip Beckwith, guitarist Paul and guest saxist Mike Murley. The combo wisely avoids sweetening already sentimental excesses. Traditional fare is better than Broadway syrup, while "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" becomes a startling romp. |
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East Coast artists have produced a disproportionate number of excellent Christmas albums, from Rita MacNeil's moving Let The Bells Ring to the Rankin sisters' latest release. Perhaps the peace, joy and hospitality of the season is part-and-parcel of the year-round East Coast sensibility.
The South Shore Nova Scotia jazz trio jazznsamba has joined the Yuletide rush by putting out a fine six-song Christmas CD.
Jazznsamba's cool, coy sound is in full flight on Christmas Card. The six well-worn Christmas chestnuts — We Three Kings, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Let It Snow, Jingle Bells, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town — are explored in unexpected ways. Melodies are playfully shifted; rhythmic emphasis slides around. The project sounds comfortably familiar and strangely unfamiliar — a next-to-impossible feat for a Christmas album. The trio — Kathie Claire Shaw on vocals, Skip Beckwith on bass and Paul on guitar — has been expanded to include saxman Mike Murley and drummer Anil Sharma. The group's sound is fuller and less intimate than on its previous release. Replacing an intense, internalized approach is an earthiness that can't help but exchange delicacy for a more rounded, flat-out approach. Santa Claus is Coming to Town, for example, is transformed into a jumpy call-and- response charmer with the crew shouting "Dig That Santa." Most of the record mines the rich vein of slow-groove samba jazz that gives the group its name. The album's opener, a medley of We Three Kings and God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen, uses Latin rhythms and striking Middle-Eastern harmonies. Shaw's sweet, sinuous come-hither voice floats along, intertwines with Paul's more straightforward vocals. |
Paul's nylon-stringed guitarwork meshes magnificently with Skip Beckwith's expert bass figures, providing a smooth and propulsive rhythmic drive. What distinguishes jazznsamba is the joy of the playing that informs every track. These musicians sound like they're having the time of their lives.
Shaw's singing, for example, on Sammy Cahn and Jules Styne's Let It Snow sounds impossibly self-satisfied. In a less talented troupe, the song would sound glib and campy. In jazznsamba's hands, the tune gurgles with happiness. When these merry jazzsters tackle Jingle Bells, the song trades its trademark tackiness for a breathless narrative style that reclaims the lyric's wackiness. Saxophonist Mike Murley shines, running commentaries off the extra verses and line breaks. The tune races along like an out-of- control sleigh, adding an extra level of interpretation to a song that has been considered a musical dead-end for several decades. Producer and recordists Bill Garrett, Skip Beckwith and David W. hillier have done a terrific job catching the group's organic energy while balancing the acoustic instruments. Shaw's voice is supported by the group's easy and engrossing rhythmic textures. Murley and Sharma are nicely mixed in to the already tightly recorded group; both are powerful instrumentalists who could easily upset the sonic apple cart. Even the packaging is an imaginative delight, with the CD itself providing a green and red holiday cover. |