STYLE: R&B RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 163085-24385 LABEL: Red Label FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 1
Reviewed by Brendan O'Regan
How you react to this depends on your attitude to modern jazz - if you like it you will probably like this, but you'd also have to be into Christmas music and not mind some familiar tunes being jazzed over. I wasn't impressed by the "Intro" track, just a short spoken greeting from Gilbert and his son, with the irritating "Happy Holiday" - what holiday is it? Name it! There's plenty of familiar material - "The Christmas Song" is given a mellow vibe and is easily recognisable; "Angels We Have Heard On High", featuring Avery Sunshine, gets a funky treatment with some tasty piano licks; "Little Drummer Boy" is an instrumental version with the brass section prominent. Gilbert's keyboard shines on "Away In A Manger". The lengthy "He Is" (two versions!) with vocals by Rolynne Anderson is the jazziest and least familiar piece and the centrepiece of the album. It seems the Little Drummer Boy stayed on for the prominent percussion on this one, and what a nifty drummer he is too! The musicianship is fine and the production values excellent, but it needs something more to make it stand out among the many jazz Christmas albums.
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