Last week I sent you the first of three Christmas Jazz Playlists – just a little something to get you in the mood for the swirl of shopping & cleaning, baking & eating, visiting & hosting, caroling & posting, which I’ve come to call “the Holidaze.”  Now here’s round two, with an emphasis on wintry weather and the Fat Man’s imminence – and including the hardest-swinging version of Greensleeves in existence – for you to purchase, assemble, and burn into a Yule soundtrack. 

(GRINCH-LIKE REMINDER: NO ILLEGAL DOWNLOADS.)

Nancy Wilson, The Christmas Song:  You’ve heard it a thousand times, but it’s still among the classiest of Christmas tunes – sung here by one of the classiest ladies in jazz, pop, and any other genre you can name.   

Mike Jones, Frosty The Snowman: When he’s not opening the nightly Vegas show for Penn & Teller, Mike Jones channels Earl Hines, Oscar Peterson, and sometimes Art Tatum into a style full of knuckle-busting, jaw-dropping technique.  (What does a Vegas denizen know about snowmen?  Well, he grew up in Buffalo.)

Al Cohn, Winter Wonderland:  One of bebop’s true originals traipses through the hibernian landscape on this 1934 ode to white stuff.  Look up “swinging tenor” in the dictionary and if there’s not a picture of Al Cohn, ask Santa for a new dictionary.  

Wynton Marsalis, Sleigh Ride: This track is from Crescent City Christmas Card, which completely eclipsed its seasonal origins and remains one of Marsalis’s best albums period, with ingenious N’Awlins makeovers of carols and secular classics.  This take on the familiar Leroy Anderson song features an inimitable vocal from Jon Hendricks. 

Duke Ellington, Sugar Rum Cherry:  When Ellington and his alter ego Billy Strayhorn brilliantly reconceived Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite for the Ellington orchestra (1960), Duke also reimagined the titles of all the movements.  Thus, this irresistible slow-drag version of “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” came to suggest a somewhat more adult dessert.

Chris Connor, Snowfall:  Connor’s deep alto and cool demeanor served her well in Stan Kenton’s band, where she accepted the mantle from former vocalists June Christie and Anita O’Day.  Her heyday was the 50s and 60s, but she re-emerged in the 80s, and in 2001 – at the age of 74 – she recorded this gorgeous version of a gorgeous tone poem.

Grover Washington Jr., The Christmas Waltz: You can’t name two musicians more different than Frank Sinatra – for whom this tune was written in 1954 – and the soulful sax king Grover Washington.  But on his 1997 Christmas disc Breath Of Heaven, “Mister Magic” showed his versatility with this simple and elegant rendition.

Typhanie Monique & Neal Alger, A Merrier Christmas: This music and lyrics by Thelonious Monk were first recorded years after his death, but this only slightly off-kilter tune was worth the wait.  Its most recent rendition comes from the Chicago duo of vocalist Monique and guitarist Alger, on last year’s Yuletide Groove – which, by the way, they’ll sing from tonight (Monday) at the Jazz Showcase.

Thelonious Monk, Green Chimneys: There's nothing particularly Christmasy about this tune, but over time, the combination of one Christmas color plus Santa's transit system have made it a holiday jazz staple.

Charlie Parker, White Christmas:  What’s the best way to re-hear a song that’s past being a cliché?  Let the greatest saxophonist in history loose on it.  This live performance comes from a Christmas Night broadcast in 1948.

Miles Davis, Blue Xmas: The iconic trumpeter, aided by the hip cynicism of vocalist Bob Dorough, gets all socially conscious with this hip complaint against Christmas commercialism and Holiday Depression.  (And it’s still catchy as all get-out.)
 

Alexis Cole, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas: The crystal-voiced New York vocalist smartly re-casts holiday tunes, both familiar and not, on her brand-new Christmas collection, The Greatest Gift.  And she’ll be selling it to benefit World Bicycle Relief  on Wednesday (the 16th) at Schuba’s, in a rare Chicago appearance.

Claudio Roditi and Don Sickler, God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen: The wonderful Brazilian trumpeter Roditi joined forces with Sickler, his fellow trumpeter and a terrific arranger, for this small-group romp on the ancient (1833) carol.

John Coltrane Quartet, Greensleeves: Did someone say “ancient”?  In this 16th-century English ballad, Coltrane found a popular song compatible with the modal-jazz experimentation that marked the second half of his career.  Then he let his incomparable rhythm section sail into it with the intensity that few bands have ever matched.

Vince Guaraldi, Linus & Lucy:  Pianist Vince Guaraldi was already famous for writing and recording the hit “Cast Your Fate To The Wind” when he transformed his cool-jazz aesthetic into the Peanuts soundtracks, starting with A Charlie Brown Christmas. This tune has nothing to do with the holiday per se, but the moment you hear it, the sugar plums start dancing.

Louis Armstrong, Cool Yule: Christmas greetings conveyed via hipster slang and pure swing by the man who all but invented jazz – the real deal.