April Varner (vocals); Luther Allison (piano, arranger); Leandro Pellegrino (guitar); Yahushi Nakamura (bass); Ulysses Owens Jr (drums, producer) + The Sunhouse Singers (backing group tks 1,5,9,10); Theo Bleckmann (vocal tk 5)It's approaching that time of year when the Xmas albums appear and you ask yourself why? Presumably it's essential to have a Christmas album on your c.v.or else you haven't quite made it and they do sell - at least in December!
April Varner, a prominent figure on the NYC jazz scene, aced the 2023 International Ella Fitzgerald Vocal Competition so I wasn't surprised to find that this is better than your average festive fayre. No Boxing Day mash up of Christmas Day leftovers. Instead it's almost like I'm hearing them for the first time - almost.
Make no mistake, Varner is a jazz singer irrespective of the material. Immaculate rephrasing and wild scatting on Jingle Bells turn it into something else. An uptempo Winterland Wonderland is also taken by the jugular and emerges as if 'twere June bursting out all over. Fantastic band solos give it an even further lift.
The tracks with the Sunhouse Trio are rich in harmony, at times bringing to mind the Andrews Sisters, at other times it's the Four Freshmen that spring to mind.
This is one album I'll probably listen to again irrespective of the season. Lance
Jingle Bells; It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas; Holly Jolly Christmas; Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree; Hallelujah; Run, Run Rudolph; Christmas Time is Here; Christmas Waltz; Sleigh Ride; It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year; Winter Wonderland.
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