With holiday season heading into the home stretch, the time is completely correct for seasonal sounds that stray from the usual overcooked pop or country variations on expected season sentiment. But in compiling my annual list of last-minute holiday music selections — split evenly between welcomed reissues from the past and new releases for the year at hand — something unexpected happened.
Just after assembling the list last week came word that the only artist to appear on it twice has left us. Raul Malo, the cross-cultural baritone that served as the voice of The Mavericks for over three decades, died on Dec. 8 after an extended battle with cancer. Two Malo entries figured into these selections — a 2018 outing with The Mavericks titled “Hey! Merry Christmas!” and a 2007 solo album, “Marshmallow World and Other Holiday Favorites,” cut during a time when The Mavericks had disbanded.
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Malo’s passing doesn’t diminish the emotional charm of either record. Both stand as holiday works marked by hearty levels of cultural curiosity and celebration buoyed by the music’s wild stylistic breath. Let’s allow let Malo’s boundless vocal cheer to lead this list recommended sounds to help us navigate these final, crazy days before Christmas arrives.
CLASSIC
The Mavericks, Hey! Merry Christmas! (2018)
The last of the Mavericks’ three incarnations, which fell into place in 2011, fully embraced a Raul Malo vision that drew on a vigorous mix of Cuban inspiration, Tex Mex, pop, soul, rock and more. “Hey! Merry Christmas!” was released in the middle of that run with a highly rhythmic, roots-driven charge led by Malo’s richly jubilant vocals. A complete holiday party of an album. Favorite track: A sly, jazzy original titled “Santa Wants to Take You for a Ride.”
Raul Malo, Marshmallow World and Other Holiday Favorites (2007)
Recorded between the last two of the Mavericks’ three lifetimes when Malo worked as a solo artist, this now out-of-print (but still very stream-able) album opens as a traditional pop work that closes off the singer’s wilder stylistic leanings. All roads open after that, though, from tunes bold and brassy to organically intimate works. Favorite tracks: a tango take on “Silver Bells” and a ukulele revision of “Winter Wonderland” that is whistled instead of sung.
Booker T and the MGs, In the Christmas Spirit (1966)
Here we have another giant who departed this month — guitarist Steve Cropper. He was never as prevalent in the make-up of this exquisite seasonal chill pill of an album as Malo was with The Mavericks’ music, but that was a defining part of Cropper’s art. He was more a musical architect than a showboat soloist. Fortified by Booker T. Jones’ sublime organ work, “In the Christmas Spirit” offers a pool of cultural cool to dip into when holiday madness gets too extreme.
John Fahey, The New Possibility (1968)
My four favorite holiday albums remain Vince Guaraldi’s vanguard soundtrack to “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” producer Phil Spector’s wall-of-sound pop masterwork “A Christmas Gift for You,” the aforementioned Booker T and the MGs gem “In the Christmas Spirit” and this wonderful set of carols set by John Fahey to rustic settings for solo acoustic guitar that sound exquisitely antique and unvarnished. A jolt of holiday spirit served with zero frills or forced sentiment.
JD McPherson, Socks (2018)
JD McPherson is a true rock ‘n’ roll journeyman, one who understands the swagger that fuels most roots-savvy traditions. You hear that in his guitarwork, in the sly cut of his vocals and especially in his playful sense of songcraft. All of that abounds on “Socks,” one of the finest slabs of original rock ‘n’ roll Christmas tunes in recent memory. You experience that blend within the twang of “Bad Kid,” the animated croon of “Ugly Sweater Blues” and the brassy swing/sing-a-long of “Hey Skinny Santa!”
NEW
Old Crow Medicine Show, OCMS XMAS
Fiddler Ketch Secor and his Old Crow string music renegades present a set of 11 original holiday tunes of varying sentiment, from the throwdown hoedown drive of “Breakin’ Up Xmas” to the cheery New England themed “North By Northeast,” along with a pair of sterling covers. Among the latter: An old-world acoustic take on John Lennon’s immortal “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” where the seasonal sentiments are placed in proper, worldly perspective.
Various Artists, The Chess Records Christmas Album
Well, the music isn’t exactly new, but the compilation is. “The Chess Records Christmas Album” mines 14 tunes covering the famed Chicago roots music label’s 75-year history. You get the brassy vocal glee of The Moonglows’ “Hey Santa Claus,” the lean jazzy cheer of the Ramsey Lewis Trio”s “Christmas Blues” and the churchy orchestral flow of guitarist Kenny Burrell’s take on “Silent Night.” A splendid holiday time capsule of an album.
Herb Alpert, Christmas Time is Here
At age 90, trumpeter, bandleader and all-around music entrepreneur Herb Alpert serves up a dozen holiday staples with the same sense of contemporary cool that has marked his career since the 1960s. Make no mistake, this is slick, keenly produced and commercial conscious music, but there is also a sense of reserve at work. Alpert stays true to his own sound, avoiding more cloying, modernistic intrusions. In short, his music and his style hasn’t aged a bit.
Various Artists, Verve // Remixed Holiday
The second holiday album in an ongoing series of releases that remix vintage music from the Verve Records catalog should be approached with caution. Those with unwavering ties to holiday classics by Ella Fitzgerald, Nine Simone, Louis Armstrong and others might see this as heresy. But the imagination flowing behind some of these mixes, like an electronica dance floor rewiring of Ella’s “We Three Kings,” might just awaken a whole new audience to this music.
The Sarahbanda, Cuban Christmas
What do you get when a French horn player from the Berlin Philharmonic, in this case Sarah Willis, mixes mambos for a no-frills take on Cuban-slanted Christmas music? You wind up with The Sarahbanda. This will likely be the sunniest set of holiday tunes to hit your ears this season. Especially, intriguing are two “Nutcracker” works transposed to Cuban settings — specifically, the gliding dance sway of a reimagined “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” and timbale-fueled “Trepak.”
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