Description
• Bear Family Records® went to the bottom of the shellac box for this Christmas collection.
• • No jingling bells, no ho-ho’s or weird reindeer voices.
• • Instead, swinging jazz at its best, rousing swing of the ’30s and ’40s, highly danceable, elegant but cool, performed by seasoned jazz musicians.
• • Featuring Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Barnet, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Putney Dandridge, and many others.
• • Short annotations for each song on the back of the album cover.
• • Carefully compiled edition, remastered from the best possible sources and pressed on high quality red vinyl.
Shellac instead of stardust: when Santa Claus takes off his boots and unpacks the gramophone after
his work is done: Bear Family Records® delves deep into the shellac box!
No intrusive bells, chumming ho-ho’s or strangely distorted reindeer voices: Every year around the
same time the displays of the department stores are bending with hastily and often suspiciously
similar compiled ‘swing’ samplers, since ”swing is coming back.” Our journey through the depths of
various shellac racks, however, brought to light quite a number of undiscovered treasures. Thus we
could stand up for the true ‘Spirit of Swing’. Thrilling music of the ’30s and ’40s, highly danceable,
elegant but cool, performed by expert jazz musicians, at the time pressed onto a mélange of shellac,
slate flour, soot and cotton flakes, to be played with a steel needle (or optionally cactus spikes for
lower volume) at an unbelievable 78 RPM and …. extremely fragile. ‘Windup’, by the way, refers to the
suitable playback device with a crank; from today’s point of view, very sustainable and
environmentally friendly!
Big names like Glenn Miller – with a very special Jingle Bells version, recorded live on Dec 24, 1941!!!
– Paul Whiteman, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Barnet, Count Basie or Ella Fitzgerald as well as Putney
Dandridge have expressed themselves in their own way on the subject of Christmas.
Ranging from charming to irreverent, Bear Family Records® finally provides a great celebration for all
fans of real swing music, as Las Vegas came much later. On ‘Santa Swings The Windup’ there are
several premieres on modern audio media. For those who prefer a CD, this compilation is available
with a total of 28 single tracks as BCD17714.
TRACKLISTING:
Side A:
Louis Prima and his New Orleans Gang: What Will Santa Say (When He Finds Everybody Swingin’) Bob Crosby and his Bob Cats (vocal: Marion Mann): Blow Blow Thou Winter Winds The Ramblers Orchestra (vocal:Marcel Thielemans): Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra: I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music Count Basie and his Orchestra (vocal: Helen Humes): And The Angels Sing Monette Moore and the Ebonaires Orchestra acc. by Phil Moore: Peace, Sister, Peace Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, Intro spoken and sung by Glenn Miller and Paul Douglas (vocals: Tex Beneke, Ernie Caceres and The Modernaires): Theme, Introduction (Moonlight Serenade); Jingle Bells
Side B:
Charlie Barnet and his Orchestra: Ring Dem Bells Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra (vocals: Jack Teagarden and Johnny Mercer): Christmas Night In Harlem Johnny Guarnieri with Slam Stewart: Santa’s Secret Chick Webb and his Orchestra (Vocal: Ella Fitzgerald): There’s Frost On The Moon Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra: Snow Ball Putney Dandridge and his Orchestra: Santa Claus Came In The Spring Joel Cowan and Thornel Swartz: Bells Of Auld Lang Syne
