While shopping with my wife recently, I heard a jazz combo version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen that I haven’t heard before. I’ve been searching for three days (almost as long as it took my wife to find “the shoes” she was looking for ) and I just can’t seem to track it down.
It had a really neat meter switch between verse and chorus, an intro very much like the song Take Five on Dave Brubeck’s Time Out album, but a search says Brubeck’s Christmas stuff doesn’t include this. Vince Guaraldi, no. Even Oscar Peterson has a version of this song, but no.
Does anyone have any clue where else I could look? It was on the satellite beam into Crate and Barrel, BTW.
There is a rather neat jazzy kind of version by Barenaked Ladies, that I heard the first time this year. It sounds like it has some mandolin too. You can hear a snippet from :
You don’t say what instruments were being played but if it was piano, vibes, bass and drums it was very likely the Modern Jazz Quartet. You could look through the CDs at Rhapsody and see if it’s there.
Thanks for the tips. Jazz combo sans vocals. I can’t remember if vibes or sax carried the melody. Steve, you may be right about the MJQ album Plastic Dreams. Rhapsody is asking for a credit card, and I can’t get Realplayer at work to cooperate with Amazon’s clips. I’ll give it a check tonight at home.
Thanks. If anyone has any other leads, I’d appreciate it.
My fave was an old Sammy Nestico arrangement for combo or big band. It went from a hard bop feel to a jazz waltz, so there was some confusion on the dance floor.
OK, I’ve confirmed it isn’t the Modern Jazz Quartet. It had the sound of Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond, complete with the intro and timing typical of their Time Out CD. I’ll keep looking and let you know if I get lucky.
The trouble you face, Jef, in tracking down jazz versions of things like Christmas carols and show tunes is that they either are lucky once-offs like Coltrane’s ‘My Favourite Things’ and a few Sonny Rollins efforts or they die the death with critics and hard core fans alike. Bands keen for sales, or more likely record companies, would sometimes release theme albums, like the Chico Hamilton Quintet’s South Pacific hoping for big sales to that vast portion of the public who want something jazzy in their collection, but who would want something safe and familiar, my parents, for example.
Check it out if you’re interested…click song sample twelve (God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen) and you’ll find why I think it liberally incorporates components of Brubeck’s “Take Five”. Brubeck’s stuff makes me smile each and every time I catch it, and hearing a bit of his style in a Christmas tune caught my ear.
I have a teenage son who plays trumpet in an unusually tight jazz band in high school. His instructor is a real dream who, in addition to writing original stuff, regularly rips apart and redoes arrangements to suit the strengths of his band. Last year they played a smokin’ version of Take Five, so I look forward to passing this on for his tool chest down the road.
I know what you mean, Wombly, about the difficulty in tracking down obscure jazz albums. I was afraid I’d find it was recorded in the 60s, but this one ends up being a recent CD.
) and I just can’t seem to track it down.
