Holiday Arrangements

Years ago my annual holiday card contained not a photo but a CD or mini-CD containing some tunes, my own arrangements of Xmas tunes (incidentally, in case you're wondering: A Jesuit teacher once informed us that the "X" in Xmas is not at all blasphemous but is based on an old Greek shorthand for Christ, the letter Chi, which looked like an X). Most of them were mash-ups of a kind, like this take on "Coventry Carol" and "We Three Kings" in a jazzy 5/4.

Or this marriage of the Ukrainian folk song-based "Carol of the Bells" (incidentally, here's a fun tweet about it) with Eden Ahbaz's "Nature Boy," a kind of Christ story (I mean...right?.

I don't know what sort of Reese's peanut butter cup moment led me to hear the commonalities between the instrumental classic "Sleep Walk" and "The First Noel," but why ask why? It's a time for miracles.

Here I used a Taylor practice guitar with a lovely, lute-like timbre to layer as many hymns as could fit over the catchy tune of "Il Est Ne, Le Divin Enfant." Are there maybe one too many gifts in this stocking? I couldn't help myself.

Finally, a rendition of just one song, the great "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (and yes, I will die on the hill of "muddle through somehow" vs. "shining star upon the highest bough"). I was taking jazz theory lessons at the time, and it shows. Vince Guaraldi has nothing to fear from me. Merry Christmas—or Xmas—you old building and loan.