I was in sunny Rothbury on the Thursday before Christmas
proceeding along the northern side of the High Street in an easterly direction
when my attention was caught by the display in the RSPCA charity shop window. A
couple of CDs had caught my eye in amongst the tinsel and tat. I went inside
and approached the assistance, enquiring about the CDs. She exhumed them from
the display and brought them to the counter. “There’s no prices on them,” she
said, “so that’ll be 20p each” I was embarrassed enough to pay for the CDs and
chuck in an extra couple of quid as a donation.
Verve Presents: The
Very Best of Christmas Jazz is very good but Ella Wishes you a Swinging Christmas is a gem. Some of the tracks
are a bit Swingle Bells but the ones where her voice is mixed high and the
orchestra is some way behind her are wonderful. She’s best, lush and romantic,
on the slower tunes such as White
Christmas and What Are You Doing New
Year’s Eve? and playful on the pop tunes such as Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. I suspect they were aiming for the Madison
Avenue advertising executive when they recorded it, but, sixty years after its
release, it works wonderfully well in chilly Northumberland. Dave Sayer
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