The album opens with one of the
songs with vocals – a gentle, late-night rendition of “Have Yourself A Merry
Little Christmas.” This version has a pleasant, nostalgic, relaxed vibe, and is
actually quite good. I love those touches on trumpet, as well as that lead
section. That’s followed by “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” with the trumpet
doing what would be the vocal line. It’s hard to listen to it without hearing
in your head the song’s lame lyrics. I prefer the section with piano on lead,
when we can forget for a moment what song it is that they’re playing. Ira
Coleman and Jeff Siegel get a chance to shine on bass and drums respectively in
the second half of the track.
“We Three Kings Of Orient Are” gets
a bit loose and features some wonderful and energetic work on trumpet. At moments,
you can forget that this is a Christmas song, and those obviously are my
favorite moments. There is some really nice stuff on drums here. This track kind
of eases out at the end. And then “Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel” begins as a
trumpet solo. This is kind of an intriguing rendition, with some pretty stuff
on keys. In fact, this track is just piano and trumpet. It ends up being one of
my favorite tracks, which might be in part because I’m not as familiar with
this one, and so no lyrics are running through my noggin as I listen to it. I
can simply enjoy it as a beautiful piece of music.
I love “Baby, It’s Cold
Outside,” the song used as the title track for this album. It’s not
specifically a Christmas song, though by now it is, by virtue of its winter
setting, tied (perhaps reluctantly) to the holiday. This track features vocals,
of course, delivered as spoken word by Patricia Dalton Fennell and Chris Pasin.
Here the roles are reversed, with the woman being the aggressive one. When the
roles are reversed like this, the guy often comes across as kind of a dweeb.
Right? Unless he’s married or really dislikes the woman or something. Patricia
gives some delightful line readings (“I’m
not concerned about your brother, dear”). But my favorite part of this rendition
is the trumpet, which is the real singer here. “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”
features more great work on trumpet, over a cool groove. I really like what
Peter Einhorn does on guitar.
Though labeled as “Greensleeves”
on the CD case, the song here is actually “What Child Is This?” with vocals by
Patricia Dalton Fennell. While I like her voice, this is a song I definitely
prefer without the lyrics, or with the original “Greensleeves” lyrics (which
have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas). The music is so beautiful. Some
of the best Christmas music ever written, however, is by Vince Guaraldi, and it
was written for a cartoon. Yup, here Chris Pasin And Friends cover “Christmas
Time Is Here” from A Charlie Brown
Christmas, which, by the way, is the best Christmas special ever made. This
is a good rendition, perhaps slightly more lively than many versions, but
featuring good work on trumpet and guitar. The CD concludes with a really nice
instrumental rendition of “The Christmas Song.”
CD Track List
- Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
- Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
- We Three Kings Of Orient Are
- Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel
- Baby It’s Cold Outside
- It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
- God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
- Greensleeves
- Christmas Time Is Here
- I’ll Be Home For Christmas
- The Christmas Song
Baby It’s Cold Outside was released on October 6, 2017.
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