An Exception to the Evil That is Christmas Music

December 24, 2010 at 1:30 pm | No Comments »

Guess I worked retail too many holiday seasons when I was in school. But few things rankle me quite so much as holiday music pumping through stores. I always feel like mourning when Starbucks rolls out the red cups and jingle belly tunes.

That said, you can browse the holiday genre in my iTunes library and discover I am, unsurprisingly, a hypocrite. Diana Krall’s Christmas Songs in particular hits a sweet spot for me. In my defense, I could give a wit about the lyrics when the performances swing the way the do here. Much of the credit, as usual, goes to the stellar musicians backing her—notably John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton and Anthony Wilson. I’ve been lucky enough to see the foursome perform live a handful of times. This studio album comes close to capturing the excitement and punch of those gigs. To me, it’s second only to Live in Paris in that regard. So much better than the dreck that usually passes for seasonal sounds.

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