Various Artists, A Traditional Jazz Christmas (Priceless Jazz)

 

Allen Toussaint & Friends, A New Orleans Christmas (NYNO)

 

 

You know it’s going to happen. Sometime long about Christmas Eve or the middle of Christmas Day, you’re going to give in to the festive air around you and actually agree that listening to a few Christmas songs might not be a bad idea. (Unless, of course, you’re one of the many millions who actually buys, stockpiles, and listens to those endless holiday compilations; for you, there is no hope.) Therefore, I recommend preparing yourself: get a blank tape, copy selections from the following, and be thankful it’s only once a year. A Traditional Jazz Christmas has both sides of Pops’ classic from the mid-1950s, “Christmas in New Orleans” and “Christmas Night in Harlem,” a funky cut from Gene Ammons (“Swingin’ for Christmas”) and a smokin’ Ramsey Lewis foray (“Christmas Blues”) marred only by some idiot playing leaden percussion on sleigh bells. Aaron Neville’s Soulful Christmas from several years back, remains what you might call an evergreen, with rockin’ versions of Charles Brown’s classic “Please Come Home for Christmas,” “Let It Snow,” and an original, “Louisiana Christmas Day,” complete with second-line, zydeco trappings. Also falsetto renditions of “Chestnuts Roasting,” “White Christmas,” and “Silent Night.” A New Orleans Christmas has the latest and best antidotes to that inevitable overdose of shopping-mall hilarity. Start off with a supercharged and humorous (“It might take six months to pay these bills; every time I think about it gives me chills”) little chestnut called “Christmas Comes But Once a Year” sung by Wallace Johnson; add a couple of super-hip, street-wise shout-outs (“Santa’s Second Line” and “Jingle Bells”) from the New Birth Brass Band; flavor with a new-school take on “Christmas in New Orleans” from Treme trumpeter and vocalist James Andrews; finish with the smoldering duet “New Year’s Resolution” by Tricia Boutte and Larry Hamilton, and, finally, sweeten with the creme de la creme, Allen Toussaint’s miniature lessons in funky, funky piano grace, “Silent Night, Holy Night” and “Winter Wonderland.” And, oh yeah — have a happy New Year.