That Holiday Feelin’ (Verve Records)
Joe Williams
Released in 1990
Todays-Jazz Best Contemporary Christmas Jazz Albums
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kjaebeegcgyi1iSSPGz0ar4WtJFvlJVBc
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/73x03sZD5Xkb6cOqbJ5R1j?si=rKuPmuYkSZS0huNvNMjKbw
About:
Jazz singer Joe Williams has a voice like butterscotch: thick, creamy, sweet, and somehow light, too. Hearing him reprise a handful of standards and three lesser-known tunes for the holidays is a guaranteed pleasure. Add a delectable horn section–and horn charts to go with chops–that includes trumpeters Joe Wilder and Clark Terry, trombonist Al Grey, alto-sax player Bobby Watson, tenor saxophonist Frank Wess and baritone player Seldon Powell to an already solid ensemble, and Williams has created a sophisticated holiday, feeling. Williams characteristically toys with the phrasing on many of these classics, presenting great treatments of “Kissing by the Mistletoe” and “A Child Is Born.” And with his chameleonesque voice that shape-shifts and colors the proceedings, Williams offers a holiday that’s adventurous while still remaining cozy, classy, and bright.
Martin Keller
Track Listing:
1. Christmas Rainbows (Bill Wallace) 05:08
2. Winter Wonderland (Felix Bernard / Dick Smith) 04:19
3. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Ralph Blane / Hugh Martin) 04:35
4. What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? (Frank Loesser) 03:53
5. Kissing by the Mistletoe (J. Leslie McFarland) 03:16
6. Silent Night (Franz Gruber / Joseph Mohr) 02:43
7. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (Sammy Cahn / Jule Styne) 04:33
8. Silver Bells (Ray Evans / Jay Livingston) 03:01
9. The Christmas Waltz (Sammy Cahn / Jule Styne) 04:02
10. The Christmas Song (Mel Tormé / Robert Wells) 04:39
11. A Child Is Born (Thad Jones) 06:11
Personnel:
Collective Personnel
Norman Simmons and Ellis Larkin: piano
Kenny Burrell and Ted Dunbar: guitars
Bob Cranshaw and Paul West: bass
Dennis Mackrel: drums
Horn Section
Clark Terry and Joe Wilder: trumpets
Al Grey: trombone
Bobby Watson: alto sax
Frank Wess: tenor sax
Seldon Powell: baritone sax
Recorded at Giant Studios, New York, NY
Arranged by Norman Simmons and Joe Williams
Horn Arrangements by Bobby Watson
Produced by Bob Porter
Engineer: Malcolm Addey
Assistant Engineer: Ron Allaire
Photography: Darryl Estrine
Design: David Lau
Art Direction: Chris Thompson
Executive Producer: Richard Seidel
Review:
One of the better Christmas jazz sets, Joe Williams is heard in quartets and quintets with pianist Norman Simmons, in several tender duets with pianist Ellis Larkins and backed by a horn section on a few tracks. It is nice to hear Williams’ versions of such tunes as “Winter Wonderland,” “Silent Night” and “The Christmas Song,” but it’s his interpretation of Thad Jones’s “A Child Is Born” that takes honors.
Scott Yanow (AllMusic)
