December 25, 2010
DO YOU SUPPOSE THE RIGHT EVEN REALIZES THE CHRISTMAS RESOURCES UNIQUELY AVAILABLE AT NPR?:
Matt Wilson | Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O (JON GARELICK, December 7, 2010, The Phoenix)
From the opening clopping rims and brawny tenor of "Winter Wonderland," you might imagine you've taken a left turn with Sonny Rollins's "Old Cowhand," if it weren't for the loping R&B bass line that soon turns into a straight walk for some fierce and witty Sonny-like blowing. "The Chipmunk Song" is an easy waltz for soprano and three-way chipmunky squawking in the out chorus; Wilson conjoins Ayler's "Angels" with the traditional "Angels We Have Heard on High" for double-time gospel fervor and toy-piano repose; "Christmas Time Is Here" could have come straight out of Kris Kringle Joe Lovano's brawny bag. In "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," the title part goes to a bass clarinet; "Mele Kalikimake" is a clarinet klezmer polka with timpani accents. As for Lennon/Ono, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is an affecting slow march with sleigh bells. Every year, there's a Christmas album that transcends the format. This year, for me, it's this one.Read more: http://thephoenix.com/boston/music/112397-matt-wilson-matt-wilsons-christmas-tree-o-2010/#ixzz193d9Ofk8
Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O: Tiny Desk Concert (Patrick Jarenwattananon, NPR: Tiny Desk Concert)
The extraordinary jazz drummer Matt Wilson seems to know that camp is part of the holiday's appeal. He recently recorded a new album of Christmas favorites new and old with two other musicians; the band and the record are both thusly called — what else? — Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O. (Dig that bargain-bin cover art, too.) And the Tree-O showed up for its Tiny Desk Concert with both a pink tinsel tree and an animatronic singing Santa hat.The band's artifice may be a bit hokey, but its musicianship isn't. With only a snare drum and ride cymbal, Wilson kept an impressively varied but deep swinging pocket, along with "wonder boy" Paul Sikivie on bass. Meanwhile, Wilson's longtime associate, reedman Jeff Lederer, stole the show on three different horns. There was gonzo tenor sax expressionism in "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing," playful clarinet staccato in "O Come All Ye Faithful" (also featuring "the NPR tabernacle choir" singing along), and a crazed, squawking reading of the most famous part of Handel's Messiah leading into a shrill "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" on piccolo.
There's a deep grounding in jazz for this — for taking threadbare or overplayed melodies and transforming them into creative art of the highest order — as well as long-standing precedents of outgoing, personable showmen.