Carla Bley: Carla's Christmas Carol auf CD

+ Steve Swallow

Es musste ja soweit kommen! Carla Bley, die Mutter aller Enfant Terribles der Jazzwelt beglückt uns zum Feste mit einem Weihnachtsalbum – ihrem ersten wohlgemerkt. Wem jetzt schon im positiven Sinne die Mundwinkel zucken, soll Recht behalten. »Carla’s Christmas Carols« beinhaltet die vielleicht verrücktesten, amüsantesten und auch anspruchvollsten Versionen von weihnachtlichen Superhits wie »Oh Tannenbaum« und »Jingle Bells«. Featuring Steve Swallow und The Partyka Brass Quintet.

Christmas music has been an enthusiasm of Carla Bley’s for decades, and traditional and non-traditional seasonal pieces are here subjected to her offbeat wit and idiosyncratic arranging skills. Selections include “O Tannenbaum”, “Away In A Manger”, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”, “Jingle Bells”,. “O Holy Night” and “Joy To the World”, plus Mel Tormé’s The “Christmas Song” and a brace of Carla’s own pieces – “Jesus Maria” (first recorded by Jimmy Giuffre back in 1961), and, giving the devil his due, “Hell’s Bells”. “Carla’s Christmas Carols” was recorded in La Buissonne Studios in the South of France after a whirlwind tour of Europe at the end of 2008, and folds in two pieces from that tour (recorded live in Berlin). The pleasure that the musicians find in the material is unmistakable and, perhaps particularly after a glass of mulled wine, contagious.