Holiday Swingin’! A Kat Edmonson Christmas Vol. 1 (Spinnerette Records)

Kat Edmonson

Released November 19, 2021

JazzTimes 2021 Holiday Jazz Album

YouTube:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nXdbqcLVaGvoL-wKRpLF9m40eHqlK97uQ

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/intl-pt/album/02o6IBlhT31bu2M2AyEJJs?si=BwFmKMuqTeujVIthcjgo6g

About:

One December day, several years ago, I got an unexpected call from Frank Filipetti.  He’d been at home listening to holiday music and it occurred to him that he would very much like to hear a Kat Edmonson Christmas album.  Alas, I had yet to record one.  Being an admirer of Frank, I cherished getting that call that day and hoped that when I finally made my Christmas album, the timing would allow us to work together. I’m so glad it did.

Kat Edmonson

Track Listing:

1. Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! 02:42
2. White Christmas 02:06
3. Jingle Bell Rock 03:33
4. The Christmas Blues 02:33
5. O Christmas Tree 02:14
6. The Christmas Song 04:09
7. I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm 03:41
8. Happy Holiday 02:14
9. The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late) 03:48
10. Oh Little Town of Bethlehem 02:56

Personnel:

Kat Edmonson: vocal
Roy Dunlap: piano
Matt Munisteri: guitar
Bob Hart: bass
Aaron Thurston: drums

Recorded & mixed by Frank Filipetti

Review:

Let me say that Edmonson is a very tasteful and artful singer, who seems to have absorbed the idiosyncratic phrasing that Billie Holiday became famous for. Edmonson’s voice is quite different from Holiday’s, though, and is, I think, an acquired taste, albeit one that many a jazz fan (if not me) has embraced. Regardless, in the same way that vocalists like Kurt Elling and Dianne Reeves can recast a song in their own style, Edmonson too adapts the Christmas tunes here to make them her own, as with her honky-tonk version of “Jingle Bell Rock” and a Django-inspired “O Christmas Tree.” She even manages to pull off a swinging version of “The Chipmunk Song.” There’s something of an old soul in Ms. Edmonson, and that’s an asset with holiday material.

Lee Mergner (JazzTimes)