(Reprinted from the December 2022 issue of New York City Jazz Record)
Despite their resolute popularity, holiday songs—nearly always vocals—don’t fit neatly into any genre. Such stubborn resistance to niche makes tracking the commercial success of any one holiday release tricky and subject to the limitations of the metrics used: Just how do you measure popularity? Consider that sales of holiday tunes have a long tail, most of the historic favorites are in the public domain, and a certain amount of holiday listening is forced, like that extra piece of pumpkin pie. Regardless, holiday tunes seem closest in appeal to traditional pop tunes, and that’s where the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences drops them each year.
Last month Nora Jones’ I Dream of Christmas (Blue Note) received a 2023 Grammy nomination in the Best Traditional Pop Album category, alongside country singer Kelly Clarkson’s When Christmas Comes Around (Atlantic). Including these two, just eight of the 170+ nominations in the category over the last 30 years have gone to holiday music. (NARAS introduced the Traditional Pop category in 1992.) Not that it should be otherwise: This catchall category has long served as an important channel for honoring non-scatting standards singers like Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole and Jones. It’s also a place where all manner of singers can cross over onto common ground: Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Willie Nelson, Joni Mitchell and Elvis Costello have all shown up on this particular Grammy roster. You won’t see Mariah Carey there, however, even though her 1994 album Merry Christmas spawned “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” consistently the top-ranking holiday tune year after year. In December 2021 this decades-old boogie-rock track was the first holiday tune ever to go diamond, according to the RIAA. That’s 10 million sales and a pretty solid measure of popularity. Neither genre nor Grammy required.
Emerging star Samara Joy, too, offers her own contribution to the holiday canon with a new single, “Warm In December,” a softly swinging take on the 1950s traditional pop classic. She’ll follow this release with a second single, the shimmering air, “O Holy Night”, in early December. These two releases come swiftly on the heels of her Verve Records debut, Linger Awhile, which will vie for Best Jazz Vocal Album at the Grammy’s next February, against records by established artists like The Baylor Project, Carmen Lundy, Manhattan Transfer, and Cécile McLorin Salvant. More auspiciously, however—Joy was also nominated for Best New Artist of the Year, an extremely rare distinction for a jazz singer. This month she celebrates with the JALC Orchestra in Big Band Holidays at JALC Rose Dec. 14-18.
No stranger to success on the jazz charts, vocalist Jane Monheit just unveiled her second holiday album, The Merriest (Club44 Records). Monheit’s gorgeously resonant voice lends a soupçon of sophistication to these lesser-known seasonal numbers, especially on tracks like “Christmas Time Is Here”, “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” and “(Christmas) Stay With Me”. It’s an impressive lineup of side players, too, including guitarist/singer John Pizzarelli, saxophonist Joel Frahm and drummer Rick Montalbano.
Singers’ singer Roz Corral passed away in September, leaving a hole in New York’s vibrant club scene. For two decades she had booked and played the North Square Lounge Jazz Brunch at the Washington Square Hotel, providing a regular mic for both breakout newcomers (like Erli Perez) and crowd-pleasing headliners (like Paul Jost). Accomplished frontman and Corral’s longtime associate Ben Cassara has taken over as booker for the North Square jazz brunch; he also curates Wednesday jazz nights at Pangea. This Dec. 21 he’ll present his annual holiday show there with a host of singers from Corral’s universe, among them Louise Rogers, Daryl Sherman, Kate Baker and Tessa Souter.
Last chances of 2022: Allan Harris, who placed third in the 2022 Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition in November, takes to the stage in Nat King Cole Christmas at Smoke on Dec. 7-8. Kurt Elling plays two different programs at Birdland this month, one on Nov. 30-Dec. 3 with pianist Danilo Perez, most likely from their 2020 collaboration Secrets Are The Best Stories (Edition), and one on Dec. 7-10 with his quartet, featuring the holiday songbook. Birdland also hosts international songstress Stacey Kent on Dec. 15-17; Svetlana and her exuberant big band on Dec. 8; and avant-garde master Jay Clayton on Dec. 5.