Down the Christmas album route before and yet it is a long time, some 17 years, since The Season.
Released at a time in singer Jane Monheit's swinging jazz cabaret style career when Monheit was as lauded as Diana Krall years earlier 'Moonlight in Vermont' was the pick of The Season. Here it is 'What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?' winning out in 2022. Its laconic playfulness is pitched perfectly and so neatly arranged.
John Pizzarelli duets on 'That Holiday Feeling' and the blend works as well as Steve and Eydie in the 1960s. Cherry pick mercilessly as Christmas albums may otherwise bring you out in a rash. And this year's goodwill currency is fast running low on time as the snow songs pile up almost to the height of the deathly east coast drifts on the news. Highly anachronistic stylistically but that's part of the point Monheit's voice as on last year's Come What May is as fine an instrument as ever. No animals or even cuddly toys were harmed in the making of this Christmas album and yet The Merriest stubbornly even bearing in mind the inevitable snow globe cutesiness of it all refuses to jar. Jane Monheit, photo: Twitter
MORE READING:
Come What May review
Pizzarelli Plays Metheny review
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