Alright, I've got another record today for ya - Remembering Christmas with the Big Bands (RCA, 1981.) Johnny Mathis is no longer with us, having been 'shelved' in the last Episode, and now sits alongside my non-Christmas albums for the remainder of the Holiday Season. In shame.
Without further ado, here we go. . .
Album Title: Remembering Christmas with the Big Bands
Album Artist: Various Artists
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| Alright all you zoot suit daddies, let's pretend it's the Summer of 1998 and get some swingin' Yule goin' on in here. . . |
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| Thanks, Granny. |
No idea where this one came from, but if I had to put money on it, I'd probably wager it came from my Dad's mom, Granny Hough. My reasoning for this? A solitary '1981,' scrawled in her trademark calligraphy, right on the front cover of the outer record sleeve.
Only a Hough, with their infamous OCD, would deem it necessary to scrawl the date of an album right across the front cover (despite the fact that the date can easily be found on the back cover, along with the usual record company copyright information.)
Anyway.
This one isn't bad - good sound quality for the record itself, the outer sleeve is in VG condition (not that I have an audiophile's super-anal rating scale to heart or anything.) This album is exactly what you would come to expect from a compilation of Big Bands doing an assortment of Christmas standards. Hopping horn sections, snappy rhythm sections - not too bad at all. When vocalists come on - as they do with Big Band numbers, about a minute or so into the song - they're recorded way too loud, as it usually the case with most Big Band recordings.I have really nothing to complain about - Glenn Miller, Sammy Kaye, Fats Waller. . . what's not to like? Well, as a Christmas album, it's a little too much on the 'jazz' side for my tastes. If I'm in the mood for swinging band jazz, these are the guys I look for, no doubt about it. They're the best in the business. That being said, I think as a Christmas album the melodies of familiar Holiday tunes gets drowned out in that Big Band swing. The variations on these tunes don't stay as centric to the normal arrangements, which forces you to sometimes work at finding out what, exactly, you're listening to.
VERDICT: 6/10 - Decent (good jazz. . . just maybe not for Christmas.)
- SHELVED -
- Brian
