Well, I never finished the 12 Songs of Christmas, and the last day of Christmas, January 6th, has passed us by already. But I did want to finish up with one more favorite.
This version of "Greensleeves" was recorded in Rudy Van Gelder's parents' famous living room, in Hackensack, New Jersey (although that sounds very primitive, actually the house was built to double as a recording studio—there's a rare photograph of the house here). The personnel are Osie Johnson on drums, Wendell Marshall on bass, Kenny Burrell on guitar, Ray Bryant on piano—and of course the great Coleman Hawkins on tenor saxophone.
The song itself it traditional, from the 16th century in England.
But now (four songs short of our goal) we leave Christmas music behind, mindful of the mantra of the marketers, namely that people don't want to hear Christmas music in January.
Hope you had a good one, though.
Mike
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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
Lindsay Bach: "Simply gorgeous. Long a lover of Hawkins' work with from the '30s and '40s with the bass magus Oscar Pettiford—think 'Body and Soul,' 'Get Happy,' etc.—I am not so familiar with his later work. Now I'm reminded to visit. Thanks for posting."
mike plews: "Excellent end to your Christmas music project. It was also nice to see you give a tip of the hat to Rudy Van Gelder. The list of artists he has worked with is just staggering. I am especially fond of the work he did with producer Creed Taylor. Here's another jazz take on Greensleves. This by the LA 4. It is from a direct-to-disc LP which meant they had to do an entire side in one take. Being a vinyl guy I figured you would dig it."
