Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

It's as if jazz singer Etta Jones has been scrubbed from the collective memory, confused with and overshadowed by the more famous Etta James or another singer named Etta Jones, who's slightly older and performed with The Dandridge Sisters, one of whom was Dorothy Dandridge who went on to have successful movie career including being the first African American woman to get an Oscar nomination, and to further muddle the Etta Joneses, IMDB.com conflates* Jones-the-lead-singer's biographical info with Jones-the-trio-member's (date of birth, husband, date and cause of death).

The jazz singer who fronted jazz combos, Jones put out an amazing Christmas record which includes this 8-minute stroll through "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" featuring tasty solos by members of the band… it swings.

*at this writing

"Frosty The Snowman"

Charlie Bertini and Friends – Frosty The Snowman starts as fast, catchy riff on the standard then at 0:40 it grows into a ripping New Orleans-flavored jazz feast of strong players and sly twists.

"Chilly Winds"

via Last.fm

A remixed (house-ified) version of Nina Simon's treatment of this song shows up on a few Christmas records, but it's Maxine Weldon's '71 straight-up R&B "Chilly Winds" track that warrants attention here.

.... because this morning, in this zip code, it was in the mid-30s F.

"(Farewell) Jingle Bells"

Dave Brubeck (December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012)

via Wikipedia

"(Farewell) Jingle Bells" comes from his "A Dave Brubeck Christmas" which is as much a title as a description.