Santa Claus Is Coming To Town/Music
by J.F. Koots, Lyrics by H. Gillespie
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas/H. Martin
and R. Blaine
Jingle Bells/J. Pierpont
The Christmas Song/M. Torme and R. Wells
Frosty, The Snow Man/S. Nelson and J. Rollins
Nature Boy/E. Ahbez
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer/J. Marks
Round Midnight/Music by T. Monk & C. Williams,
Lyrics by C. Elsner
Winter Wonderland/Music by F. Bernard, Lyrics
by D. Smith
I’ll Be Home For Christmas/K. Gannon and W.
Kent
Let It Snow! Let It Snow!/Music by J. Styne,
Lyrics by S. Cahn
White Christmas/I. Berlin
O Come, All Ye Fathful/Music trad. Portugal,
Words trad. Latin, translated by F. Oakley
Silent Night/Music by F.Gruber, Lyrics by J.Mahr
Joy to the World/Music by G. Fr. Handel, Lyrics
by I. Watts
A Child Is Born/Music by T. Jones, Lyrics by
C. Elsner
It’s Beginning To Look Like Christmas/M.Willson
I’m Standing At Your Manger Low/Music by J.S.
Bach, Lyrics by P. Gerhard, English by C. Elsner
La, Le, Lu/H. Gaze, English by C. Elsner
Christmas albums are a joy
and a curse every year. These familiar songs
often rekindle joyous memories of youth, gifts
under the tree, and thoughts of family and
friends. As a result it often seems that everyone
who has access to a recording studio eventually
decides that they absolutely must share their
own visions of sugarplums. When this is successful,
we are magically transported back through
the years and celebrate accordingly. As so
many of these wonderful tunes are now swing
and jazz standards, this album attempts to
put itself in the realm of Frank Sinatra,
Bing Crosby, or Louis Armstrong.
It’s a shame that the attempt
is such a ham-handed, futile attempt. Christian
Elsner’s voice is beautiful, and rich, but
could not be more wrong for jazz. He seems
to have little understanding of the idiom.
The timbre is wrong, the accent is wrong,
the phrasing is overly-exact and overly-precise.
His English sounds unnatural and overly practised
to the point of being utterly artificial.
It’s unfortunate that this music is so distinctly
different from the operatic tradition that
he is so obviously prepared for.
If it were merely the vocals
that were such a travesty this album would
be innocuous enough, and would merely be a
forgettable piece of holiday tripe. However
the arrangements are often intruded upon by
a violin that sounds totally out of place
and becomes a distraction that cannot be ignored.
Again, it is obvious that the musician employed
is technically competent but horribly misemployed.
The rhythm section is competent
and polished. The drumming and piano work
is harmless enough, and the bass player occasionally
provides some glimmers of understanding. Ron
Carter or Jaco Pastorious he is not, but Stefan
Engals can hold his own. Sven Hack on flute
and tenor sax displays a Dexter Gordon tone
and provides the few musically enjoyable moments
on this disc during his saxophone solos. Unfortunately,
his flute work is too closely akin to the
orchestral work he must be normally employed
with. He would be well served to listen to
the timbre of Dave Valentin before he attempts
any more work on a jazz flute. His tone is
simply too pure and bereft of emotion.
As the disc progresses, it
seems that the arranger feels that he must
earn his keep by randomly inserting nonsensical
repetitions and key changes. When this is
done in the work of Theloneous Monk, Thad
Jones or Charles Mingus, we see musical genius.
Unfortunately Konrad Georgi is parroting their
lead sheets rather than their sound, displaying
in no uncertain terms the lack of understanding
and exposure that he has of jazz as an art
form.
In short, this is an ill-conceived
album, poorly executed and lovingly crafted
by people that simply do not see what a disaster
it is that they have wrought. It reminds me
of a student exercise where the young performer
makes an attempt to stretch himself, and in
that context this might be considered a worthy
attempt. However the disc is not worth your
hard earned money. As an example of jazz,
it is without merit. As an example of Christmas
music, it runs the gamut from merely uninspired
to truly bad. This is unfortunate, as so many
of the performers are also so obviously technically
proficient; they simply missed the opportunity
to produce something worthwhile. Maybe next
year Mr. Elsner will consider doing everyone
a favor and producing an album of baroque
or romantic period songs. This Christmas album
is best used as a white-elephant gift at the
office Christmas party, or perhaps as a festive
holiday coaster. I cannot fathom a desire
to listen to it again.
Patrick Gary
CD Reviews
CPO
777 016-2 [51:27]
