Tianna Hall
(vocals); Chris Cortez (guitar, additional vocals); Anthony Sapp (bass); Paul English (piano); Tom Cummings (vibes,
drums); Dennis Dotson (trumpet); Woody
Witt (tenor sax, clarinet); Warren Sneed (alto sax, flute); Thomas Hulten
(Trombones); Joel Fulgham, Memo Rezo (drums, various tracks)
(Review
by Ann Alex)
Christmas has come to
BSH, in the form of sweet-voiced Tianna Hall and the band, doing well known
Christmas songs in a jazz style which pleasantly avoids the sentimental trap of
some Christmas music, thank goodness.
Nine Noel favourites, well played, some carols with intriguing hints of
the riffs you sang in church as a child, if church music can be said to have
riffs.
The Angels (Angels From The Realms Of Glory); A Child Is Born/Christmas
Time Is Here; Santa Claus Is Coming To Town; The Christmas Song (Chestnuts
Roasting On An Open Fire); We Three Kings; God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen; Oh
Come, Oh Come Emmanuel; Santa Baby; and
What Are You Doing New year’s Eve?
This would be a lovely
CD to play at your Christmas party, but also authentic solid jazz for
listening.
For instance, A Child Is Born is sung with reverence,
the piano flows, the tenor sax solos well; Santa
Claus Is Coming To Town with just jazz guitar accompaniment and a duet with
fun scat; We Three Kings bring gifts
of an effective guitar solo and a 4-note riff, repetitions of ‘travelling far’
and ‘orient are’; God Rest Ye Merry
Gentlemen is an instrumental with a tricky guitar solo; and Santa Baby is done sexily, with a
‘calling’ voice and winsome guitar, so how could Santa resist? Plenty solos throughout for horns and brass,
so what’s not to like? It’s hard to
believe that this was all recorded in Houston
Released November 26 on
the Blue Bamboo Music label.
Ann
Alex
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