There’s no big preamble to this Christmas jazz list of mine, save for a desire to show off the music, moods and holiday moments that are warming to the touch and seasonally stirring to the soul. Or they’re just great giddy fun at a time when we could all use a laugh, a cocktail or six, some cool joyful spirit — sacred and secular — and the gift of expansive jazz in all its tones, colors, theatricality and quietude.
The 15th Annual Joe Iconis Christmas Extravaganza: December 14 livestream from 54 Below
Composer, lyricist and singer Joe Iconis is a beloved musical theater writer who’s also become a doyen of hard-rocking, Jerry Lee Lewis-meets-Jelly Roll Morton piano-pounding cabaret and jazz. He invades New York’s intimate 54 Below (the old Studio 54) with original raw-boned songs, weird drunken Santas (thanks actor-vocalist Jason Sweettooth Williams) and upwards of 70 loud, lewd, loving family cast members. Though the in-person showcase runs through the weekend, on December 14 everyone can see and hear the Iconis gang’s Christmas Extravaganza live and livestreamed at 7 p.m. ET, with special guest Golden as a rare treat.
Darius de Haas, Let Me Carry You This Christmas
(Concord Theatricals Recordings)
If you streamed The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and wondered about the jazzy, finger-snapping, Sam Cooke-like vocalist (the character of Shy Baldwin), you should investigate his seasonal best’s debut with a smoking hot, small combo and cocktail-cool arrangements from Maisel orchestrator David Chase and my favorite 8-bit music maker, Charlie Rosen, living up to his brassy, Some Like It Hot Broadway best.
Herb Alpert, Christmas Time Is Here (Herb Alpert Presents)
It’s been great seeing Herb Alpert of late, touring with his cool, crooning missus, Lani Hall, juking with his legendary Tijuana Brass, and yes, still recording. This new Christmas gem isn’t the spicy 1968 ting-a-linging Tijuana Brass Christmas album — nothing is. But Alpert’s silver-and-gold trumpet playing has so much breadth and emotion through the Chet Baker-like tone of “Feliz Navidad” and the Latin-lilting “Christmas Time Is Here,” you’re going to want to make the merry and bright just a little bit darker.
Ella Fitzgerald, Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas: Deluxe Edition
(Verve Records)
The gold standard from 1960 gets literal with two gold translucent slices of vinyl, a sheet of cute cut-out ornaments, a sturdy journalistic essay by vocal jazz historian Will Friedwald, and, of course the crème of the Decca- and Verve-era Ella swinging her face off on “Winter Wonderland” and “Sleigh Ride.” This. Is. How. Christmas. Is. Done. Proper.
Lakecia Benjamin (feat. Christie Dashiell), “The Christmas Song”
(Artwork Records)
Saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin has sailed through so many vibes and influences — from Prince to the Coltranes, John and Alice — in the last decade that something smooth, soulful and hugely arranged is her due. With vocalist Christie Dashiell along for the sleigh ride, Benjamin dances around the Festivus pole and blows with gentle abandon. Dig her.
Stella Cole, Merry Christmas, Darling (Decca Records)
Darling, indeed. Cole has a vintage, elegant Mabel Mercer-meets-Laufey thing going on without being too polite or too proper, and has just enough trad-warmth and complex emotional range to her voice to bring real passion to the Carpenters’ “Merry Christmas, Darling.” Beloved for her elevated takes on the Great American Songbook, I think Cole’s going to be a big jazz thing in 2026, starting a few weeks early with this haughty holiday collection.
Frank Sinatra, Christmas on the Air (SING)
After the SING label’s humbly stunning Live at the Hollywood Bowl package comes this even-newer Sinatra holiday season rarity stocking-stuffed with tracks recorded on radio broadcasts across the 1940s and early 1950s. Remember that the latter-day radio recordings on this collection were captured toward the end of his early career as The Voice and into a bleaker period: his mad, bad Ava Gardener-inspired marital slump, moving slowly into his next mega-successful neo-Rat Pack run at Capitol. This gives Sinatra’s Christmas cheer a dose of deep, abiding melancholy just perfect for sitting by the fire, sipping a good bourbon and heaving a holiday sigh, that is, There’s also Frank doing Christmas radio promo bits for U.S. Savings Bonds, which is silly but fun to hear.
Anthony Nunziata, Christmas & You (Nunztunes)
Give this showy, occasional opera-singing cabaret vocalist big credit. Not only did he co-write an album’s worth of new Christmas songs that run the gamut from sacred soul to sultry jazz; he’s tinged several of his fresh songs with a smoldering brand of loungey, country-politan swing that Dean Martin made popular after “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime.” C’mon. How great is this?
Various Artists, The Classic Holiday Singles Box (UMe)
Connie Francis, Christmas in My Heart (Polygram)
Crate diggers unite: UMe has gathered the best-ever contemporary Christmas seven-inch 45s from Bobby Helms’s “Jingle Bell Rock,” Brenda Lee”s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run,” John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” and Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” and paired them in this cool, collectable tin with jazzier classics from Frank Sinatra 
(“Jingle Bells”) and Nat “King” Cole’s “The Christmas Song” all in replication of their original 45 sleeves. The Connie Francis Christmas in My Heart thing is vintage early ’60s vocal pop, an expansion of her holiday classic now that her famed B-side “Pretty Little Baby” has become the most listened-to song in TikTok’s history.
Emmaline, The Christmas Album (Curly Cuel Records)
Everyone loves high-breezy, Nashville-based violinist Emmaline. So what happens when she mixes up a handful of jittery-rendered traditional carols and original compositions all showing off her free vocal chops and throws in a zig-zaggy “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”? Find out.
Jake Shimabukuro, Tis the Season (JS Records)
Beyond the rarity of swanky, Hawaiian ukulele virtuosity… OK, that’s mostly it. Shimabukuro is the only guy making this jazzy, jiving, upbeat Beatnik pop. To have this be his first holiday album, with the ghost of the late Jimmy Buffett appearing midway through this Christmas party-séance, Tis the Season is Tis Fabulous.
Wycliffe Gordon, Holiday Fun (Arbors Records)
Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon is a king of the brass-fantasy big band sound. Why wouldn’t he do likewise for Christmas swing and celebrating the classics, loudly?
Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night
Starting in 1992, experimental music multi-instrumentalist and jambient sound-sculptor Phil Kline composed a 45-minute work, Unsilent Night, as a moveable feast and mobile outdoor soundscape where each audience becomes the performer en masse, “It’s very simple to do,” states the website. “Each participant simultaneously plays one of four pre-recorded tracks from any device that amplifies music (such as a phone connected to speakers, a boombox, a homemade rig) as they walk together on a pre-determined route.” You can get in on the procession — if not start your own procession, commencing December 11 in cities across the globe. JT
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source jazztimes.com ’
