Overlooked and Underappreciated Christmas Gems

Do you have any Christmas albums you enjoy a lot but few others seem to have heard of? Maybe we can point one another to some good holiday recordings we haven't heard before.

First one I'll mention is John Pizzarelli's Let's Share Christmas. There are some nice big band arrangements mixed in with smaller jazz trio (a la Nat Cole Trio) recordings that work well together to make a really nice little Xmas CD.

Another holiday favorite of mine is the A&M sampler album, Something Festive, available only on vinyl. It features two tracks each by Alpert & TJB and Baja Marimba Band, and one each by Brasil '66, Liza Minnelli, We Five, Pete Jolly, Claudine Longet and Burt Bacharach. It's not difficult to find either--I came across four (or is it five) copies rather easily.

 

Yes, I found this one at a thrift store last year. Mint. It's an RCA Living Stereo. Carillons are pretty cool!

John Klein "A Christmas Sound Spectacular" (at the carillon Americana)
RCA LSP 2023

 

Bruce Cockburn's Christmas (True North/Columbia, 1993). It's currently OOP in the States, although Canadian imports are still available. Wonderful album.

 

Yep, this one:

 

Oops - sorry about that! Awesome album that begs for the SH touch at the controls...

 

A Dave Brubeck Christmas
The Ventures Christmas as mastered by SH

 

The Ventures Christmas Album IS fantastic. You cant help but smile when you play that...its such a trip back to another time,when chicks wore Go Go Boots, and life was all about being cool.

 

Mosaic Records recently brought out a Duke Peason set in their Mosaic Selects-three CDs of his 1968-70 Blue Note output. It includes MERRY OLE SOUL,a rarity for being a true BlueNote Christmas album-possibly the only non-compilation seasonal album the label produced(?). I have the original vinyl so I can't comment on the reissue(it's supposed to have two added tracks from the session) but the original is a nice bookend to Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown material-a true jazz artist letting even non-jazz fans in on the fun.(Rhino licensed a track on thier Christmas Jazz CD years ago.) Duke plays a celeste on a few tracks and the set includes Bob Cranshaw, Mickey Rocker and Airto. As much as I would have loved to see this available individually at regular retail outlets,I would have never expected to see it available at all(it never sold first time around),much less through Michael Cuscuna's impeccable label. Fairly priced,too.

 

Phil Keaggy with the London Festival Orchestra - Majesty & Wonder (1999 Myrrh Records)

 

A single track: Al Jarreau's version of "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts...etc...)". Makes me wonder why he never did an entire album.

My ex and I enjoyed Lorrie Morgan's "Merry Christmas from London" CD. Probably didn't sell much outside the country market, but it's actually a vocal with orchestra recording. Unexpectedly nice!

 

Esquivel! Call it Lounge or just good old fashioned Christmas music... either way, this disc is a 'can't miss'! It's become a holiday tradition at our house.

 

Jon Anderson- Three Ships. Great version of the Holly and the Ivy. A Roy Thomas Baker production.

 

I've always enjoyed Clint Black's LOOKING FOR CHRISTMAS. An admirable effort and a great bunch of original Christmas songs. I think you can still find it in the cutouts.

 

As a matter of fact, the Clint Black Christmas CD is still in print as a "Special Products" disc.

 

Here are just a few worth checking out.

Two great compilations -- I'm not sure if either or both are still in print -- are Must Be Santa! The Rounder Christmas Album and Xmas Marks the Spot (Rykodisc). The former has many great songs with artists associated currently or formerly with Rounder, including "Christmas in the Trenches" by John McCutcheon, NRBQ's Christmas "hit", Chris Stamey's Christmas "hit", even George Thorogood and the Destroyers' "Rock and Roll Christmas" (not recorded until after he'd left Rounder for EMI, but Rounder licensed it anyway). The latter has Big Star's "Jesus Christ" and many other lesser-known holiday songs. Both are worth picking up.

Johnny Cash has done four Christmas albums over the years; the most obscure, and maybe the best (I haven't decided), is one he recorded in 1991 for the Laserlight label, just about when his contract with Mercury was about to lapse. I don't know if it's in print any more, but I pulled it out for the first time in a few years earlier this season, and it still holds up. His 1963 album for Columbia, The Christmas Spirit, is also a classic.

If you can find them, two compilations from vinyl days that are interesting are A Christmas Album on the Ze/Passport label (1981/82) and The Christmas Rock Album on Priority (1986). The former could be considered the only "No Wave" Christmas record, as it contains such gems as "Christmas on Riverside Drive" by August Darnell (aka Kid Creole) and tracks by Was (Not Was), Cristina and Suicide, plus it marked the first appearance of "Christmas Wrapping" by the Waitresses. The latter compiled some 1970s and 1980s Christmas rock songs on LP for the first time, including "Thank God It's Christmas" by Queen, both sides of Billy Squier's Christmas single, "Step Into Christmas" by Elton John, "Father Christmas" by the Kinks, "Silent Night" by Elvin Bishop, "All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Foghat, and several others.

Everyone's heard the title song, but the entire album of Burl Ives' Have a Holly Jolly Christmas (easily found in CD bargain bins) is excellent, with many wonderful songs you never hear elsewhere.

 

Lisa Mychols- Lost Winter's Dream

Produced and backed by The Wondermints, if you love Brian Wilson, Phil Spector and Bob Gaudio 60's productions, you'll love this.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...89023/sr=11-1/ref=sr_11_1/104-0868149-1915941

 

Stan Kenton's A Merry Christmas, back on CD after being OOP for most of the last decade.

 

Acoustic fingerstyle guitarist Ed Gerhard has two beautiful Christmas albums on his own Virtue Records (www.edgerhard.com). Ed is a extremely talented musician who records in his home studio using high quality equipment and has a real ear for detail.
Imagine a more consistent, better recorded, slightly less "out-there" John Fahey
(may he rest in peace), and you've got some idea of the way these albums sound.

 

One of my all time favorites.

 

Don't know whether he's well known in the US.....but, although I'm not a fan, the best X-mas album since a few years I think, is Helmut Lotti's "Classical Christmas With Helmut Lotti".

I don't like his other stuff, but this one is right to the heart. It's available on Amazon.com if you're interested....

 

"The Burl Ives Christmas Album" is worth it for "Happy Birthday Jesus," a classic and definitely overlooked narrative (Burl owns this track now and forever as far as I am concerned), the same with Santa Mouse.

 

My overlooked and underappreciated gem: Leon Redbone's "Christmas Island".

This album comprises 33.33% of my Christmas record collection, making it all the more special!

 

Mighty Blue Kings - The Christmas Album...........Definitely one of my favs, and it seems no one knows about it. The originals, in particular are great.

 

I love this album, too. Epsecially his renderings of OLD CHRISTMAS MOON and the title track. I have it on cd, purchased when it came out and Leon was making a swing through town. Yep, it's autographed.

 

Check out "It's Christmas, Man" by Brave Combo. My hands down favorite contemporary Christmas music. Stylistically all over the map; polka, merengue, rock, afro-pop. Some "jokey" tunes and some delivered very seriously (their Ave Maria is really touching). A really fun disc that helps me decorate my tree every year (along with Phil Spector's Christmas Gift, the Leon Redbone mentioned earlier (good one!), "A Big Band Christmas" compilation, and, uh, Johnny Mathis, for reasons unclear to me.