Year 'Round Christmas

by Don Lanphere

Overview

Too often, jazz Christmas albums come off sounding less than improvisational, nearly approaching the easy listening albums of the world. Try playing something with a long and cherished history and form, and too much improvisation seems almost blasphemous. Hence, many artists shy away from too much destruction of the Christmas classics. Here, the great saxman Don Lanphere tinkers with a series of classics, in tandem with an outstanding band, and deconstructs them to their most elemental. These classics almost get lost -- somewhere behind the spurts of collective improvisation, exploratory scale searching, and avant-garde drum solos, you suddenly realize that you're listening to "Silver Bells." Here's the trick, though: where others shy away from such improvisation and tenderly stroke the classics in their usual form, Lanphere arranges these such that the pieces come across as pure jazz numbers that happen to be built on the chord changes of the classics. Not Christmas songs played in a jazz format, but pure jazz, with an underlying Christmas mood or undefinable something to it. With players of the caliber they've got here, it makes for an outstanding, refreshing Christmas album -- strong improvisation, excellent soloing all around, and just a hint of the holidays to keep the ambience where it's supposed to be. ~ Adam Greenberg

Product Details

Release Date:	01/01/2003
Label:	Origin (Arts) Records / Origin Records
UPC:	0786497400928
Rank:	177180

Tracks

1. Overture -- Christmas to the World
2. Jingle Bells
3. Cradle in Bethlehem
4. Silver Bells
5. The Christmas Song
6. Mary's Boy Child
7. I'll Be Home for Christmas
8. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
9. Deck the Halls
10. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
11. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
12. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
13. O Holy Night
14. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Don Lanphere   Primary Artist,Saxophone
Jeff Hay   Trombone
James Caddell   Vocals
Marc Seals   Keyboards
Michael Powers   Guitar
Dean Hodges   Drums
Jonathan Pugh   Trumpet
Chuck Deardorf   Bass
Kelly Harland   Vocals

Technical Credits

Robert Wells   Composer
John Mason Neale   Composer
Richard Storrs Willis   Composer
Robert Nyquist   Cover Image
Ron Cole   Arranger
Daniel Sheehan   Photography
John Sullivan Dwight   Composer
Sammy Cahn   Composer
Ralph Blane   Composer
Jay Livingston   Composer
John Bishop   Cover Design
Walter Kent   Composer
Glenn Lorbecki   Engineer
Buck Ram   Composer
Michael Powers   Arranger
Ray Evans   Composer
Adolphe Adam   Composer
Mel Torme   Composer
Jule Styne   Composer
James Pierpont   Composer
Edmund Sears   Composer
Kim Gannon   Composer
Hugh Martin   Composer
Traditional   Composer
Don Lanphere   Arranger