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Michael Leonhart Orchestra: Silent Night

By Ludovico Granvassu
December 15, 2023
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Conceptually, I find holiday music puzzling. How can it be that, year after year, it keeps being churned out? Even by jazz musicians, who are usually not driven by commercial considerations? Then why not spring-break albums? Or something more meaningful like World Oceans Day jazz music? Or Martin Luther King day songs?

I presume that holiday music represents the ultimate challenge to the creative-minded artist: "how can I bring excitement, new life, and my own stamp, to a corny and overused 'seasonal standard'"?

All fears that the holidays are the Kryptonite of creativity instantly dissipate when you listen to albums like

Carla Bley

piano
1938 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Carla Bley's Carla's Christmas Carols, or A Dreamers Christmas by

John Zorn

saxophone, alto
b.1953

" data-original-title="" title="">John Zorn, Very Last Christmas by

Tin Men and the Telephone

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Tin Men and the Telephone, the An Ayler Xmas series by

Mars Williams

saxophone
b.1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Mars Williams, or songs like "It's Christmas Time" by

Sun Ra

piano
1914 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Sun Ra, "Christmas with Satan" by

James Chance

" data-original-title="" title="">James Chance, "Shubho lhaw qolo" by

Ibrahim Maalouf

trumpet
b.1980

" data-original-title="" title="">Ibrahim Maalouf.

The latest addition to the small list of inventive and fabulous-sounding holiday music is "Silent Night" as interpreted by the

Michael Leonhart

trumpet
b.1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Michael Leonhart Orchestra, featuring a solo by

Brandon Wright

saxophone

" data-original-title="" title="">Brandon Wright on flute. As they say on Instagram reels: "wait until the end!"

Contact Ludovico Granvassu on All About Jazz.
I'm the Editor-in-Chief of All About Jazz Italia, host of Mondo Jazz on Radio Free Brooklyn and was once visited by Frank Zappa's ghost.... he was funny too.

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