I love Christmas music, of all kinds, and all demoninations. I love to play Christmas music whether it is playing trombone in a full orchestra or brass quartet or euphonium or tuba in a TubaChristmas concert. I love the sounds and the merriment. But I know that some people loathe it, with a passion! I’m not one of those people who start listening to Christmas music in October. I wait until after Thanksgiving and the first of December.
As a kid I remember listening to my parents music and we had one Christmas album, by Andy Williams. I learned all of those songs by playing that album incessantly, much to the chagrin of my mother.
Last week, I sat down and listened to a tiny bit of my CD collection of Christmas music. I think I made it through about 12 CDs or so. I started identifying songs that I wanted to rip and put in my iTunes library. For most CDs I would identify 3 or 4 songs that I liked or sometimes the whole CD (Elvis, the Canadian Brass, and the Dallas Symphony Brass). For some CDs I didn’t choose any of the songs and I’ll be getting rid of those CDs. I realized I’m not into to music that I refer to as “tinkly shit” (think Renaissance type music) and that I am more into big, brassy arrangements or ones that I can sing along with.
There are some songs that sounded like death dirges instead of holiday melodies. I like to avoid those…
- I’ll be Home for Christmas
- Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
- We Wish You A Merry Christmas
- Must Be Santa
- Holly Jolly Christmas
- I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
- The Littlest Angel
- LIttle Drummer Boy
- 12 Days of Christmas (Although I love the arrangement by Straight No Chaser which is really a Christmas carol medley that includes My Dreidel)
- All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth (Unless you are 6 and missing your front teeth)
- Anything involving Chipmunks
- Adestes Fidelis
- O’ Tannenbaum
- Stille Nacht
- Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- Jingle Bells
- Jingle Bell Rock
- Frosty, the Snowman
- Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
- Away in the Manger
- God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
- Deck the Halls
- Winter Wonderland
- The Christmas Song
- White Christmas
- Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
- Silver Bells
- Santa Baby
- Good King Wenceslas
- Go Tell It On the Mountain (I have a fabulous jazz version of this from the Pete Jacobs Orchestra on their album Big Band Christmas)
- O Holy Night
- Auld Lang Syne
- Hallelujah Chorus
- Blue Christmas (when Elvis is singing it)
- Hark the Herald Angels Sing
- Angels We Have Heard on High
- We Three Kings
- The First Noel
- Joy to the World
- O Come All Ye Faithful
- Sleigh Ride (I always volunteer to help out the percussion section and play the whip in this one)
- Nutcracker Suite (I totally prefer the bass trombone part in this one, much more interesting playing a sting-bass like part rather than counting rests)
