Album Notes

Call me Scrooge, but I am not a big fan of most Christmas music albums. If you've heard one, you've pretty much heard them all. Until now. Big props are in order for the jazz musicians on A Cellar Live Christmas who take ten traditional holiday favorites, give them makeovers, and play them in such a manner that you almost forget that you are listening to songs you have heard all your life. A Cellar Live Christmas alternates between a quartet (B3 Kings): Cory Weeds on alto sax, Bill Coon on guitar, Chris Gestrin on b3 organ, Denzal Sinclaire on drums and voice and a trio (Bruno Hubert Trio): Hubert on piano, Andre Lachance on drums, Brad Turner on drums. Issued on The Cellar's in house label, A Cellar Live Christmas is the label's seventeenth release, all recorded at the club. You have not heard 'Jingle Bells' until you have heard it by the excellent B3 Kings, who recast it as a funky dance number with George Benson-esque grooveof guitarist Coon, the funky B3 of Gestrin and the smoky, wailing sax of Weeds. Th Hubert Trio's near-glacier slow take of ' Little Drummer Boy' features the burnished enticing vocals of drummer Sincalire. Along with "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' and "O Come, O Come Emmanuel' the voicings of pianist Hubert recall those of Brad Mehldau and his trio. The B3's version of 'O Little Town Of Bethelehem' start out as a slow blues, promptly jump starts into a fast paced jamming tune and then stops on a dime, revisting the blues. Besides the excellent musicianship, the key to the success of this Christmas album is Gestrin's arrangements. His smart orchestrations work flawlessly on each tune. A Cellar Live Christmas is one of the best Yuletide albums to ever come down the pike.

by Ollie Bivins.