Looks like a fun one!
I guess it is a requirement for any musician who has released more than one album to then do a Christmas album. Part of me wonders whether it has something to do with money, but no, it’s only because holiday music is the most challenging and lends itself to the widest range of interpretations . Even Jimi Hendrix recorded Christmas stuff. When I lived in Miami, FL in 1980, I worked at Spec’s Records, owned by some crabby old guy who was related to Phil Spector - the only job I was ever fired from because I knew more about big band jazz than the owner did, but that’s another story. We used to get these very proud Jewish people coming in, nose in the air, asking for records by Barbara Streisand and I loved to recommend her recording of Christmas material, “Look, she does a fantastic Ave Maria, but sorry, nothing about Chanukah.”
But since this is an audiophile forum, I’d like to put in a plug for Seth MacFarlane’s album Holiday for Swing (Qobuz link / Apple Music link). As with all of Seth’s albums, the recording is great. My favorite track is the final - his version of “The Christmas Song,” (which my Dad always sang “Chet’s nuts roasting on an open fire…”) Apparently, they needed another track, so Seth went into the studio with pianist David Hartley and did a single take of the song. It is one of the most present recordings I’ve ever heard.
