Swinging jazz at its best, rousing swing of the '30s and '40s, highly danceable, elegant but cool, performed by seasoned jazz musicians.

Bear Family Records® went to the bottom of the shellac box for this Christmas collection.

No jingling bells, no ho-ho's or weird reindeer voices.

Instead, swinging jazz at its best, rousing swing of the '30s and '40s, highly danceable, elegant but cool, performed by seasoned jazz musicians.

Featuring Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Barnet, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Putney Dandridge, and many others.

Short annotations for each song on the back of the album cover.

Shellac instead of stardust: when Santa Claus takes off his boots and unpacks the gramophone after his work is done: Bear Family Records® delves deep into the shellac box!
No intrusive bells, chumming ho-ho's or strangely distorted reindeer voices: Every year around the same time the displays of the department stores are bending with hastily and often suspiciously similar compiled 'swing' samplers, since 'swing is coming back.' Our journey through the depths of various shellac racks, however, brought to light quite a number of undiscovered treasures. Thus we could stand up for the true 'Spirit of Swing'. Thrilling music of the '30s and '40s, highly danceable, elegant but cool, performed by expert jazz musicians, at the time pressed onto a mélange of shellac, slate flour, soot and cotton flakes, to be played with a steel needle (or optionally cactus spikes for lower volume) at an unbelievable 78 RPM and .... extremely fragile. 'Windup', by the way, refers to the suitable playback device with a crank; from today's point of view, very sustainable and environmentally friendly!

Big names like Glenn Miller - with a very special Jingle Bells version, recorded live on Dec 24, 1941!!! - Paul Whiteman, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Barnet, Count Basie or Ella Fitzgerald as well as Putney Dandridge have expressed themselves in their own way on the subject of Christmas.

This compilation is available on CD with a total of 28 single tracks as BCD17714.

Track Listing

• Louis Prima and his New Orleans Gang - What Will Santa Say (When He Finds Everybody Swingin')
• Bob Crosby and his Bob Cats (vocal: Marion Mann) - Blow Blow Thou Winter Winds
• The Ramblers Orchestra (vocal:Marcel Thielemans) - Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
• Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra - I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music
• Count Basie and his Orchestra (vocal: Helen Humes) - And The Angels Sing
• Monette Moore and the Ebonaires Orchestra acc. by Phil Moore - Peace, Sister, Peace
• Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, Intro spoken an sung by Glenn Miller and Paul Douglas (vocals: Tex Beneke, Ernie Caceres and The Modernaires) - Theme, Introduction (Moonlight Serenade); Jingle Bells
• Charlie Barnet and his Orchestra - Ring Dem Bells
• Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra (vocals: Jack Teagarden and Johnny Mercer) - Christmas Night In Harlem
• Johnny Guarnieri with Slam Stewart - Santa's Secret
• Chick Webb and his Orchestra (Vocal: Ella Fitzgerald) - There's Frost On The Moon
• Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra - Snow Ball
• Putney Dandridge and his Orchestra - Santa Claus Came In The Spring
• Joel Cowan and Thornel Swartz - Bells Of Auld Lang Syne

Additional Details

Label: Bear Family Records

Genre: Jazz

Run Time: 41:00 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 10/06/23

UPC: 4000127180742