About 20 years ago I started a tradition of giving my family and friends Christmas tapes every year. Remember cassette tapes?? These tapes featured a variety of Christmas favorites, gathered from a wide array of styles and genres and I’d carefully write out the songs and artists in red and green ink on each label. One year I learned how to play Silent Nightand was so happy about learning my favorite Christmas song that I just kept revamping it as a final track on the odd Christmas compilations each year.
Every holiday season I’d get worked up about learning new Christmas songs, an enthusiasm that usually waned considerably after waiting until a week before trying to learn something new. Eventually, I added a few more songs to the holiday song book, and along the way started recording in digital and the gifts became CDs with color-printed labels. Some of those early labels were really gaudy and downright ugly, but it was always the thought that counted, and the musical selections got better and more varied and always included at least one or two cuts from my all time favorite Christmas Album, the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas by The Vince Giraldi Trio. I love this record and it always brings back childhood memories of watching the cartoon every year, back when we had to get off of the couch to turn down the volume or change the channel. Little did I know at the time that this amazing soundtrack was an early indoctrination into the world of Jazz by way of a popular cartoon. Along the way I started seeking out Christmas music that wasn’t exactly radio friendly and always tried to include a few novelty songs like Cheech & Chong’s hilarious, Santa Claus and His Old Lady.
