A Very Swingin' Basie Christmas!

Last updated
A Very Swingin' Basie Christmas!
A Very Swingin' Basie Christmas!.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedNovember 6, 2015
RecordedAugust 2024 – July 2015
Label Concord

A Very Swingin' Basie Christmas! is a 2015 Christmas album by the Count Basie Orchestra, directed by Scotty Barnhart, and released by Concord Records. [1] [2] The album was recorded between August 2014 and July 2015. [3]

Track listing

  1. "Jingle Bells" (Pierpont) [2:37]
  2. "Let It Snow" – with Ellis Marsalis (Styne/Cahn) [5:56]
  3. "It's the Holiday Season" – with Johnny Mathis (Thompson) [4:02]
  4. "Silent Night" (Gruber/Mohr/traditional) [3:25]
  5. "Good "Swing" Wenceslas" (Helmore/Neale/traditional) [3:35]
  6. "The Christmas Song" – with Ledisi (Torme/Wells) [3:42]
  7. "Little Drummer Boy" (Davis/Onorati/Simeone) [4:51]
  8. "Sleigh Ride" (Anderson/Parish) [3:50]
  9. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" – with Carmen Bradford (Blane/Martin) [5:04]
  10. "Winter Wonderland" (Bernard/Smith) [3:10]
  11. "I'll Be Home for Christmas" – with Ellis Marsalis & Plas Johnson (Gannon/Kent/Ram) [4:31]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark Terry</span> American swing and bebop trumpeter

Clark Virgil Terry Jr. was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Edison</span> American jazz trumpeter (1915–1999)

Harry "Sweets" Edison was an American jazz trumpeter and a member of the Count Basie Orchestra. His most important contribution was as a Hollywood studio musician, whose muted trumpet can be heard backing singers, most notably Frank Sinatra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thad Jones</span> American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader (1923–1986)

Thaddeus Joseph Jones was an American jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader who has been called "one of the all-time greatest jazz trumpet soloists".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Hendricks</span> American jazz lyricist and singer (1921–2017)

John Carl Hendricks, known professionally as Jon Hendricks, was an American jazz lyricist and singer. He is one of the originators of vocalese, which adds lyrics to existing instrumental songs and replaces many instruments with vocalists, such as the big-band arrangements of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. He is considered one of the best practitioners of scat singing, which involves vocal jazz soloing. Jazz critic and historian Leonard Feather called him the "Poet Laureate of Jazz", while Time dubbed him the "James Joyce of Jive". Al Jarreau called him "pound-for-pound the best jazz singer on the planet—maybe that's ever been".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Marsalis</span> American drummer

Jason Marsalis is an American jazz drummer, vibraphone player, composer, producer, band leader, and member of the Marsalis family of musicians. He is the youngest son of Dolores Ferdinand Marsalis and the late Ellis Marsalis, Jr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellis Marsalis Jr.</span> American jazz pianist and educator (1934–2020)

Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr. was an American jazz pianist and educator. Active since the late 1940s, Marsalis came to greater attention in the 1980s and 1990s as the patriarch of the musical Marsalis family, when sons Branford and Wynton became popular jazz musicians.

"April in Paris" is a popular song composed by Vernon Duke with lyrics by Yip Harburg in 1932 for the Broadway musical Walk a Little Faster. The original 1933 hit was performed by Freddy Martin, and the 1952 remake was by the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, whose version made the Cashbox Top 50. Composer Alec Wilder writes, "There are no two ways about it: this is a perfect theater song. If that sounds too reverent, then I'll reduce the praise to 'perfectly wonderful,' or else say that if it's not perfect, show me why it isn't."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doug Lawrence (jazz musician)</span> Musical artist

Doug Lawrence is an American jazz tenor saxophonist from Lake Charles, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Count Basie Orchestra</span> American big band

The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16- to 18-piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 1950s, the band survived long past the big band era itself and the death of Basie in 1984. It continues under the direction of trumpeter Scotty Barnhart.

"I'm Beginning to See the Light" is a popular song and jazz standard, with music written by Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges, and Harry James and lyrics by Don George and published in 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irvin Mayfield</span> American jazz musician, composer and bandleader (born 1977)

Irvin Mayfield Jr. is an American trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator. On November 3, 2021, Mayfield was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defrauding the New Orleans public library system for over one million dollars.

<i>A Swingin Christmas</i> 2008 studio album by Tony Bennett featuring the Count Basie Big Band

A Swingin' Christmas is a Christmas album by Tony Bennett, released in 2008, that features the Count Basie Big Band. Bennett's daughter Antonia duets with him on one track.

<i>Ray Sings, Basie Swings</i> 2006 compilation album by Ray Charles, Count Basie Orchestra

Ray Sings, Basie Swings is an album that mixes previously unreleased Ray Charles vocal performances from 1973 with newly recorded instrumental tracks by the contemporary Count Basie Orchestra.

<i>Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album</i> 1968 studio album by Tony Bennett

Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album is a 1968 studio album by Tony Bennett, his first Christmas album. It was arranged and conducted by Robert Farnon.

<i>I Gotta Right to Swing</i> 1960 studio album by Sammy Davis Jr.

I Gotta Right to Swing is a 1960 studio album by Sammy Davis Jr., accompanied by an uncredited Count Basie Orchestra, minus Count Basie himself.

William "Scotty" Barnhart is an American jazz trumpeter. A three-time Grammy winner, he has played since 1993 as a featured soloist with Count Basie Orchestra. In September 2013, Barnhart was announced as the new director of the Basie Orchestra. He has multiple recordings with pianist Marcus Roberts, as well as recordings with Tony Bennett, Diana Krall, Ray Charles, and Tito Puente. A solo CD, released with Unity Music, is titled Say It Plain and features Clark Terry, Ellis and Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, Jamie Davis and Etienne Charles; it achieved number 3 in the Jazz Charts. Also active as an educator and clinician, he is author of The World of Jazz Trumpet - A Comprehensive History and Practical Philosophy. He is a professor in the College of Music at Florida State University.

<i>Sing Along with Basie</i> 1958 studio album by Joe Williams, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross and the Basie Band

Sing Along with Basie is an album by vocalese jazz group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross with Joe Williams and the Count Basie Orchestra recorded in 1958 and originally released on the Roulette label.

<i>Live at the Sands (Before Frank)</i> 1998 live album by Count Basie and His Orchestra

Live at the Sands (Before Frank) is a live album by the pianist and bandleader Count Basie with performances recorded in Las Vegas in 1966 at the same concerts that produced Frank Sinatra's 1966 album Sinatra at the Sands. It was released on the Reprise label in 1998. The album is of the warm-up sets by Basie's band before Sinatra's performances.

<i>All About That Basie</i> 2018 studio album by Count Basie Orchestra

All About That Basie is an album by the Count Basie Orchestra, released on September 7, 2018. On the album, the Count Basie Orchestra, now under the leadership of trumpeter Scotty Barnhart, remakes classic swing and blues classics with guest appearances by modern artists including Take 6, Stevie Wonder, and several notable jazz musicians.

References

  1. "Music Review: The Count Basie Orchestra's 'A Very Swingin' Basie Christmas!'". KCUR - Kansas City news and NPR. 2015-12-01. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  2. "The Count Basie Orchestra: A Very Swingin' Basie Christmas". Jazz Weekly. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  3. "Scotty Barnhart / Count Basie Orchestra: A Very Swingin Basie Christmas". AllMusic . Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2015.