10 Of The Best Jazzy Christmas Tunes | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Entertainment

10 Jazzy Christmas Tunes To Get You Pumped For The Holiday Season

Standard Christmas songs made new by awesome artists can make anyone excited for the holidays!

100
10 Jazzy Christmas Tunes To Get You Pumped For The Holiday Season
https://utahvoices.org/product/christmas-music-packet-new-singers/

In This Article:

With year after year of the same Christmas and holiday music, you may want to, at this point, rip your ears off at any mention of Santa or jingle bells. However, that same old, seemingly boring music can come anew in the workings of innovative jazz musicians.

1. "The Christmas Song" from Ella Fitzgerald's "Christmas" Album

This is one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs and Ella Fitzgerald's performance of it is simply stunning. The band is swinging, there is a lovely xylophone or vibraphone solo and Ella makes any song she sings instantly pleasurable with her cheerful phrasing and tone.

2. "Ave Maria" from Harry Connick Jr.'s "When My Heart Finds Christmas" Album

Harry Connick Jr., who is known as a singer, is also a gifted piano player in his own right. This tune, while always beautiful, can sometimes weary listeners who have heard it multiple times. Harry retains the beauty of the song, perhaps even making it more beautiful, with a couple of minutes of gorgeous piano playing followed by his lovely, clear voice singing the tune in front of an enchanting orchestra.

3. "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" from the "Frank Sinatra Christmas" Album

Frank Sinatra, deemed a crooner in his early career and a master interpreter in his later years, reinvents this Christmas hit. He swings the tune with the big band behind him and rearranges key melodic parts it to make it new.

4. "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" from Harry Connick Jr.'s "When My Heart Finds Christmas" Album

Harry freshens up this piece with a drum entrance sounding like snow, a break with him singing, and bold big band entrance that starts the tune swinging. The horns play with great skill and add a boldness to the piece, while the strings add a classic element to the tune. Connick Jr. also reinvents the classic melody a few times.

5. "O Holy Night" from Ella Fitzgerald's "Christmas" Album

This hymn is beautifully done normally, but Ella elevates that beauty with her swinging, clear voice and with the lovely choral voices backing her up. The song also ends with a grandeur hit and has some lovely purely vocal parts.

6. "Linus And Lucy" from the Vince Guraldi Trio's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" Album

Most people know the main theme of this iconic tune, but they do not listen further to the great jazz work happening. This work has made Guraldi's sound instantly recognizable, as it should be, and is a wonderful holiday tune to get anyone in the spirit.

7. "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" from Harry Connick Jr.'s "What A Night! A Christmas Album"

This from a more recent Christmas album of Harry's. This piece swings hard with muted trumpet, the walking bass and Harry's piano soloing. It is a tune that makes you want to get up and dance and has such interesting instrumental parts. Harry also makes the melody anew with his unique phrasings.

8. "Jingle Bells" from the "Ella and Louis Christmas" Album

Louis Armstrong is one of the only other artists that Ella has done duets with and his superb trumpet playing only elevates her lovely singing. This version of "Jingle Bells" especially elevates the original with Armstrong's muted trumpet playing and the swinging background singers.

9. "O Holy Night" from Harry Connick Jr.'s "When My Heart Finds Christmas" Album

I know I already included "O Holy Night" from Ella Fitzgerald's album, but Harry's rendition of it is so good, and different, that it had to be added to the list. What makes Harry's rendition so good is the instrumentation. Harry sings beautifully, but the eclectic woodwind instruments and the gorgeous french horn add a unique fullness to the tune. It is lovely to listen to and one never gets bored with such unique instrumentation. The tune evolves as it goes on and features many beautiful instrumental solos.

10. "Christmas Time Is Here- Instrumental" from the Vince Guraldi Trio's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" Album

A lesser known hit than "Linus and Lucy," but still pretty widely known and popularized by Charlie Brown. There is just such a calming, relaxing and almost romantic quality to Guraldi's piano playing.

Even if you hate the repetitiveness of Christmas music and dread those holiday tunes every year you can find something different in these jazzy pieces. These classic artists reinvent what may seem boring into beautiful and new variations. With such lovely tunes as these, it would be hard to not be excited for Christmas!

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
ross geller
YouTube

As college students, we are all familiar with the horror show that is course registration week. Whether you are an incoming freshman or selecting classes for your last semester, I am certain that you can relate to how traumatic this can be.

1. When course schedules are released and you have a conflict between two required classes.

Bonus points if it is more than two.

Keep Reading...Show less
friends

Whether you're commuting or dorming, your first year of college is a huge adjustment. The transition from living with parents to being on my own was an experience I couldn't have even imagined- both a good and a bad thing. Here's a personal archive of a few of the things I learned after going away for the first time.

Keep Reading...Show less
Featured

Economic Benefits of Higher Wages

Nobody deserves to be living in poverty.

300435
Illistrated image of people crowded with banners to support a cause
StableDiffusion

Raising the minimum wage to a livable wage would not only benefit workers and their families, it would also have positive impacts on the economy and society. Studies have shown that by increasing the minimum wage, poverty and inequality can be reduced by enabling workers to meet their basic needs and reducing income disparities.

I come from a low-income family. A family, like many others in the United States, which has lived paycheck to paycheck. My family and other families in my community have been trying to make ends meet by living on the minimum wage. We are proof that it doesn't work.

Keep Reading...Show less
blank paper
Allena Tapia

As an English Major in college, I have a lot of writing and especially creative writing pieces that I work on throughout the semester and sometimes, I'll find it hard to get the motivation to type a few pages and the thought process that goes behind it. These are eleven thoughts that I have as a writer while writing my stories.

Keep Reading...Show less
April Ludgate

Every college student knows and understands the struggle of forcing themselves to continue to care about school. Between the piles of homework, the hours of studying and the painfully long lectures, the desire to dropout is something that is constantly weighing on each and every one of us, but the glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel helps to keep us motivated. While we are somehow managing to stay enrolled and (semi) alert, that does not mean that our inner-demons aren't telling us otherwise, and who is better to explain inner-demons than the beloved April Ludgate herself? Because of her dark-spirit and lack of filter, April has successfully been able to describe the emotional roller-coaster that is college on at least 13 different occasions and here they are.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments