Ray Brown Trio
Christmas Songs (Telarc)
If you’ve gotta have Christmas music playing — and sometimes, I suppose, you do — then it might as well swing. And if there’s one thing that this compilation of traditional Christmas tunes does, it’s swing. Bassist and bandleader Ray Brown sees to that, as he and pianist Geoff Keezer and drummer Gregory Hutchinson breathe relative life into these time-tested and well-worn Christmas tunes. The arrangements are outstanding and the music consistently surprising — almost as surprising as the inconsistency of the vocals. Diana Krall’s treatment of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” deadpans the jolly right out of there, and Etta Jones’ “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” won’t make much of anything move like a bowl full of jelly. Marlena Shaw’s “Jingle Bells” puts the spirit back with some help from Ralph Moore’s tenor sax, and Dee Dee Bridgewater’s vocals on the funky and far-reaching “Away in a Manger” are exuberant if not slightly carried away, while Kevin Mahogany, Nancy King, and Vanessa Rubin all do their classics well. Overall, it’s the music and not the singing that makes this collection work; a solid lineup of players that takes these tunes to heart, boosted by the contributions of Moore and Russell Malone’s guitar.
This article appears in December 24 • 1999.