December 25, 2006

White Christmas

originally posted 12-21-06 00:25. Bumped to the top for obvious reasons. Scroll down for newer posts

I'm not a christian any more & even when I was I didn't celebrate Christmas. The reasons for that are sundry & complex & irrelevant for this post. But I always dug Christmas music. When I was a musician I used to start brushing up on them in early to mid fall. I usually wouldn't have to play them till Thanksgiving or so & after New Year's Eve they'd be shelved for another 11 months. Which may be why I dig them - I only had to play them one month out of the year. Meanwhile the Electric Slide & the Macerena were year round tortures. But in any case a lot of Christmas tunes are jazz standards in form, & some are quite fun to play with lots of interesting nuances & chord progressions & such.

So since I'm snowed in (kinda) & Christmas is coming & I assume that most of the folks who read this will celebrate it in some fashion I'll list some Christmas tunes I've found on Youtube.com. For the gun related stuff just scroll on down to the next post. To get your Christmas groove on continue reading.

It should be noted that some of the vids are slideshows with the tune named playing or in some cases just a pic displayed through the course of the song. I make no recommendations for the vids (though all are work safe) as it's the music I'm pointing out. Enjoy.

Bing Crosby doing White Christmas.

Christina Aguilera doing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Dean Martin doing Let It Snow.

Christina Aguilera doing The Christmas Song.

Nat King Cole doing The Christmas Song.

Vince Guaradli's Christmas Time Is Here.

Steve Vai doing Vince Guaradli's Christmas Time Is Here.

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong doing Baby It's Cold Outside.

Brian Setzer Orchestra doing Winter Wonderland.

Bing Crosby doing I'll be Home For Christmas.

John Williams conducts the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus as they perform the Hallellujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah

Headwater's Concert Choir and the BSO Rose Garden Orchestra performing the Overture of Handel's Messiah (the Mozart Arrangement) (1 of 14 movements - the remaining are listed in the sidebar of the vid's page).

Central Dauphin & Hershey Choirs doing Ava Maria.

Uncredited Artist doing You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch.

Brian Setzer Orchestra doing Stray Cat Strut/You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch.

Christina Aguilera and Dr John doing Merry Christmas Baby.

Original cartoon of Frosty The Snowman.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra doing The Nutcracker Suite.

Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra doing The Nutcracker Suite (part 1 of 6 - the remaining are listed int he sidebar of the vid's page).

Brian Setzer Orchestra doing Dig That Crazy Santa Clause.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra doing their arrangement of Christmas Eve in Sarjevo/Carol of the Bells.

Louis Armstrong doing Zat You Santa Claus?

Brian Setzer Orchestra doing Zat You Santa Claus?

The Chipmunks doing Silver Bells.

Elvis Presley doing Silver Bells.

Elvis Presley doing Blue Christmas.

Porky Pig doing Blue Christmas.

Bon Jovi doing Please Come Home For Christmas.

Posted by Publicola at December 25, 2006 11:59 PM | TrackBack
Comments