Christmas Music

Rifftides offers a short list of recommended holiday music -- one old CD, two new ones.

OLD: The umpteenth reissue of Vince Guaraldi's imperishable sound track to Charles Schulz's television classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas. Maybe I love it because the music is so good, so fresh, that listening to it every year is a rediscovery. Maybe it's because when I hear it, I'm bewitched by the image from long ago of two little boys in their pajamas, transfixed as they watch Linus, Lucy, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Maybe it's because I knew Guaraldi and in this music he captured his own child-like sense of wonder.

NEW: Dawn Clement: Christmas. The young pianist who made an indelible debut on Julian Priester's In Deep End Dance and an impressive followup with her own Hush offers a delightful holiday gift. In Christmas, she plays Bach, Guaraldi, Lizst and a variety of classic carols, singing many of the songs in her improbably high, pure voice. It is all enchanting. Clement is a latter-day Blossom Dearie, just as musical and, in her own way, just as hip. You are unlikely to find this jewel anywhere but on Ms. Clement's web site.

NEW: David Friesen, Jeannie Hoffman: Christmas at Woodstock. The bassist and the pianist-singer give a holiday concert not at Yasgur's iconic farm in upstate New York but at a wine shop in Portland, Oregon. With them are guitarist Jerry Hahn, saxophonist Rob Davis and drummer Gary Hobbs. The camaraderie is infectious, the musicianship stunning. Friesen's bass virtuosity is well known. Hoffman's skill as a pianist and her husky, quaintly phrased singing are less familiar than they would be if her career had taken more conventional paths. Those who think all the best players are based in New York will find Hahn, Davis and Hobbs to be revelations. Some of the pieces are finely crafted sketches, others little concertos. The Friesen-Hoffman-Hahn-Davis-Hobbs "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" swings as hard as any piece of music I've heard lately.