Music on the Web (UK)

Webmaster: Len Mullenger

[ Jazz index ] [Nostalgia index]  [ Classical MusicWeb ] [ Gerard Hoffnung ]

Crotchet

'The Definitive Stan Getz' Swingin’ CHRISTMAS PARTY Bluebird 09026 63974 2

1. Glenn Miller – Jingle Bells
2. Ralph Flanagan – Winter Wonderland
3. Tommy Dorsey – Santa Claus is Coming to Town
4. Freddy Martin - Sleigh Ride
5. Vaughan Munroe – Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!
6. Claude Thornhill – Snowfall
7. Sammy Kaye – White Christmas
8. Larry Clinton – Parade of the Wooden Soldiers
9. Fats Waller – Winter Weather
10. Benny Goodman – Santa Claus Came in the Spring
11. Fats Waller – Swingin’ Them Jingle Bells
12. Spike Jones - All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth
13. Guy Lombardo – Auld Lang Syne

No real surprises here, a collection of Christmas Sounds recorded in the 30’s & 40’s recorded by very bands of that era. There are some nice little solos here and there, but there is nothing that you couldn’t play to the family during Christmas Dinner. You would run the risk of being thought a tad old fashioned by the rest of the family, but if you suspect they think that anyway, why worry about it!

Snowfall by Claude Thornhill does not fit too well with the title, but it is a rather pleasant piano piece. It is nice to know there is an alternative to ‘Bing’ for White Christmas, but swingin’ is not what this versions about. The Wooden Soldiers swing along nicely and ‘Fats’ is as instantly recognisable as ever on Winter Weather and Jingle Bells.

The Guy Lombardo version of Old Lang Syne is very melancholy and it does make you wonder who this album was really aimed at. I have often thought that most Christmas Songs are much too good to be played for only one week a year, so I can’t help wondering which others Joshua Sherman the Compilation Producer turned down to come up with these.

 

Don Mather

 

 

Return to Index