I’m a big fan of Peter White, the Smooth Jazz guitarist and record producer. White’s Christmas Concert featured plenty of fun music and three guests: saxophonist Euge Groove, singer Lindsey Webster, and multi-talented Vincent Ingala (sax, guitar, and bells). I had no idea Peter White wrote “Wonderful Christmastime,” a popular Holiday song. If Peter White and his crew shows up in your neighborhood, I recommend you buy some tickets to one of the better Christmas shows around. Do you have a favorite Holiday song? GRADE: A
SET LIST:
The Little Drummer Boy
(The Trapp Family Singers cover) (with Lindsey Webster & Euge Groove)
O Tannenbaum
(with Lindsey Webster & Euge Groove)
This Christmas
(Donny Hathaway cover) (with Euge Groove)
Home for the Holidays
(Perry Como cover) (with Vincent Ingala)
Christmastime Is Here
(Vince Guaraldi Trio cover) (with Euge Groove)
Wonderful Christmastime
(Paul McCartney cover) (with Vincent Ingala & Euge Groove)
O Christmas Tree
(with Vincent Angala & Euge Groove)
Jingle Bell Rock
(Bobby Helms cover) (with & Euge Groove)
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
(Brenda Lee cover) (with Lindsey Webster & Euge Groove)
Run Rudolph Run
(Chuck Berry cover) (with Vincent Angala & Euge Groove)
Jingle Bells
(James Lord Pierpont cover) (with Lindsey Webster)
Go Tell It On the Mountain
(with Vincent Angala & Euge Groove)
White Christmas
(Irving Berlin cover) (with Lindsey Webster, Vincent Ingala & Euge Groove; sung acapella)
Silent Night
(Joseph Mohr & Franz Gruber cover) (with Euge Groove)
Sleigh Ride
(with Vincent Ingala & Euge Groove)
The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)
(Mel Tormé cover) (with Euge Groove)
INTERMISSION
Blue Christmas
(Doye O’Dell cover) (with Euge Groove)
Livin’ Large
(Euge Groove cover) (with Vincent Ingala & Euge Groove)
Bueno Funk / Get Up, Stand Up / Bueno Funk
(with Vincent Ingala & Euge Groove)
Grazing in the Grass / Chinese Dance from “The Nutcracker Suite” / Groovin’ / Just My Imagination / Shotgun / Grazing in the Grass (reprise)
(with Lindsey Webster, Vincent Ingala & Euge Groove)
Santa Claus is Coming to Town / Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
(with Lindsey Webster, Vincent Ingala & Euge Groove)
ENCORE
So This Is Christas/Oh, Holy Night
(John Lennon cover) (with Lindsey Webster, Vincent Ingala & Euge Groove)
Not a big fan of Christmas songs. I worked a number of years in retail and got burned out listening to the same songs over and over year after year. Don’t care if I ever hear Little Drummer Boy again. At least they didn’t do the Twelve days of Christmas and included some songs usually not heard at Christmas concerts (Lennon, McCartney, Berry). Glad you had a good time.
Steve, the same here!
Anyway starting advertising for Xmas shopping in November now – accompanied by this “Gedudel” as we say in German I find really crazy. I well remember flying to Miami for a nice holiday in December (cheap too, before the snowbirds arrive) and hearing those songs all day, in the hotel lounge, in the supermarkets and outlets – kind of horrifying!.
I might have to add that I’ve become a totally a-religious person when I was six(!) years old – most of my friends were sent to Catholic school while I had to go to the minority Protestant school.
OK, presents were nice – but the other Xmas stuff …
Wolf, many U.S. radio stations start playing Christmas music after Halloween! It used to be Thanksgiving (a month later). And, some radio stations only play Christmas music 24/7. That’s a little too much for me.
Steve, I’m a sucker for Smooth Jazz. These talented performers put on a wonderful Christmas show that really got me into the season.
I don’t care for smooth jazz. I find it the equivalent of easy listening pop/rock. I once took a trip with someone who only played Kenny G the whole way. I was on the verge of strangling her by the time we got done. I tried to play Van Morrison’s Moondance . She thought it too rough for her.
Steve, I only play Kenny G in moderation. Van Morrison’s MOONDANCE qualifies as “Easy Listening” in my book.
“Wonderful Christmastime” should not be confused with Paul MacCartney’s “A Wonderful Christmas Time,” a song I really like, but evokes, um, mixed feelings in many others. Secular Christmas favorites include Elton John’s “Step into Christmas,” Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby,” and The Carpenters’ “Merry Christmas Darling.” As always, my favorite Christmas carol is “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” which is really more of an Advent carol, but I love it just the same.
Deb, you have excellent taste in Christmas music! I just heard the Madonna version of “Santa Baby” that is light-years away from Eartha Kitt’s rendition.
There are a few Christmas songs I really dislike – McCartney’s version of “Wonderful Christmastime” (sorry. Deb) is right up there, though not quite as bad as Burl Ives doing “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas” or Lou Monte’s moronic “Dominick the Donkey.”
I like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “The Christmas Song,” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” Also “Santa Baby”, but only the Eartha Kitt version. And Chuck Berry’s version of “Run, Rudolph, Run.” And I get a kick out of Gene Autry singing “Here Comes Santy Claus.”
Probably needless to say, but anything sung by Bing Crosby is a non-starter with me.
Jeff, it’s hard to believe Bing Crosby’s version of “White Christmas” is still right up there in Christmas songs rankings.
Why? It’s a classic.
Rick, I would have thought some more modern Christmas songs would surpass “White Christmas” in popularity and sales.
One wonders why Jeff hates Bing Crosby so much…
He was a stone hypocrite who posed as a great family man while he screwed around with other women and beat his kids.
Totally with Jeff on this one. Crosby drive his first wife to alcoholism and mental health issues with his womanizing and his stone-cold distance. He refused to divorce her though (because he didn’t want to risk alimony or having his behavior exposed in court), although he kept telling Inger Stevens he would eventually marry her. He didn’t. When his first wife died, he married a woman half his age with whom he had another family. He basically disinherited the sons from his first marriage—two of them eventually committed suicide and all of them had drug & alcohol issues. A friend of someone I once worked with had a baby by one of Bing’s sons (Lindsey, iirc) and she wouldn’t even put his name on the birth certificate because of the family’s extraordinary levels of dysfunction. Many years ago, I read a good, if tabloidy, account of his life: BING CROSBY: THE HOLLOW MAN. Worth a look if you can find it.
A couple more on my Good list:
Blue Christmas as done by Porky Pig (Elvis’s version is OK too)
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Darlene Love
Jeff, I’m a fan of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” by Idina Menzel & Michael Bublé.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bbuBubZ1yE
Carol of the bells, aka silver bells