Search - Fareed Haque :: Blue Note: Yule Be Boppin'

For that hardened jazz boho on your list, this 15-piece slab serves up a lot of cool yule trimmings. There are goodies for baddies here, including Javon Jackson, who takes you on a drum-lead, saxophone-improv trip during "Santa Baby," exploring all the nooks and crannies of Santa's workshop. Bob Dorough reprises the cynical classic "Blue X-Mas" while Sweet Daddy Love and the Blue Note Ad Hoc Orchestra revisit that beatnik staple "Bebop Santa Claus." Other noteworthy tracks include Jacky Terrasson soulfully welding "Adeste Fideles" and "Little Drummer Boy" in a groovin' orgy of organ-chased gospel rhythms and sprite piano riffs. No hip set would be complete without "Zat You, Santa Claus?", here handled admirably by Benny Green and Miles Griffith (although no one can lay a finger on Louis Armstrong's version). Cool stuff, even for nonjazz stiffs. --Martin Keller