Personnel: Wynton Marsalis (trumpet); Jon Hendricks, Kathleen Battle (vocals); Todd Williams (soprano & tenor saxophones, clarinet); Wessell Anderson (alto saxophone); Joe Temperley (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet); Alvin Batiste (clarinet); Wycliffe Gordon (trombone); Marcus Roberts (piano); Reginald Veal (bass); Ben Riley, Herlin Riley (drums).
Recorded at RCA Studio A, New York, New York on January 24 & 25 and April 3 & 4, 1989. Includes liner notes by Stanley Crouch.
At last, an album for the Grinches! Wynton Marsalis takes almost every standard Christmas holiday tune and re-invents each one into a joy-filled vehicle for improvisation, rich with the influences of New Orleans jazz (especially Jelly Roll Morton) and the orchestral palate of Duke Ellington. Marsalis and his various ensembles treat the tunes with warmth and reverence--one never gets the sense that they're "parodying" the material. Yet they perform these Christmas classics like they were written just for them, playing with easygoing conviction and passionate yet restrained soloing. A fine album for the yuletide season! (All this, and Katherine Battle and Jon Hendricks, too!).
