Let It Snow!, Part 4

I'm in Bartow, Florida this evening, where the air is moist and warm and the ubiquitous Christmas lights serve as a reminder that the holiday is only a little more than two weeks away. I, of course, have fallen behind in nearly everything. Notably, I have yet to produce a single hard copy of my latest holiday CD, and that's a problem. For the past dozen years, my annual CD has served as my holiday card, and I don't want friends and family to think I've forgotten about them. I'm thinking of saving a copy of this year's mix to "the Cloud" and providing friends and family with streaming and downloading instructions by email or card. That would preserve valuable resources, eliminate needless trash, and save me several days' worth of hard work. Besides, CDs are so 1990s. A number of people I know and respect don't even have CD players anymore.

Here are some thoughts on several additional tracks from this year's mix:

Track 12

Funky, Funky Christmas, by Electric Jungle (1972)

Several weeks ago, someone at work asked me what type of music I was into. I'm never sure how to answer that question, for as crazy as I am about music, my tastes are very eclectic, and there are so many styles and artists I know nothing about. Moreover, I find it challenging to talk intelligently about some of the stuff I really like. Take funk, for example. I've got a pretty good idea what it is when I hear it, and I can rattle off a bunch of funk classics that I truly love. But I couldn't really define funk with any sort of specificity, nor could I name a single funk song, album or artist after the late 1970s. I'm pretty damn sure "Funky, Funky Christmas" by Electric Jungle qualifies as the genuine article, however, and while Electric Jungle doesn't seem to have released anything beyond this single 45 R.P.M., I'm willing to bet that had they done so, it would have been very funky, too.

I first heard this one several years ago on a spirited album I bought online from Strut Records called In the Christmas Groove, This is the second track I've used off the album. In 2012 I used a track called "Black Christmas," by the Harlem Children's Chorus on my CD "Here Comes Santa Claus." It's a moving and beautiful song in so many different ways, and I still can't listen to it without getting a little choked up.

Now, please don't confuse this track with a monstrosity of the same name by New Kids on the Block. If you want to hear that one, you're going to have to look it up on your own.

Track 11

Big Bulbs, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings (2014)

I've posted quite a few times about Sharon Jones in recent years, and her death last month came as quite a shock. She came to musical prominence relatively late in life, but Jones' career really started taking off over the past couple of years. She was an amazingly talented performer, and she will long be remembered for her contributions to the holiday music scene. "Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects" is among the very best new holiday tunes of the past ten years, and their 2014 CD "It's a Holiday Soul Party" manages to capture some of the energy and daring that was such an integral part of Jones' live performances. "Big Bulbs" is from that wonderful album, and you owe it to yourself to check out the complete package.

Track 10

Christmas Party, Teddy and the Tall Tops (1983)

Let's take a trip back in time . . . not so far back as the 1950s, although at first blush this tune sounds like it may have been recorded then, in Memphis or thereabouts. Sounds just like Elvis, don't it? — the young Elvis, before Vegas and the extra weight and all. No, the trip I have in mind involves heading back to someplace in Texas in the early to mid-1980s. Times were good in Texas back then. The local oil business was running full tilt, jobs were plentiful, and in cities like Austin and San Antonio there was a whole lot of new music being made. Sure, country music was still real big with most folks in the Lone Star State, but there were plenty of other styles that were taking off there, too — particularly in college communities like Austin. One of the most successful local Austin bands at the time was Teddy and the Tall Tops. I'm not sure I'd call them a country band, although they were recognized as one of the area's best Country acts for several years at the Austin Music Awards. I think the better term is Rockabilly, or maybe Roots Rock — and, come to think of it, they did pretty well in that latter category at the "Austies" as well. Founded in the early 1980s Teddy and the Tall Tops was co-founded by Ted Roddy and blues guitarist Mark Pollock and included bass player Donny Ray Ford with Russell Flemming on drums. They appear to have recorded a couple of different albums back in the late 1980s and the band remained active on the club circuit (with various adjustments to their original line-up) well into the '90s. Word is that they started playing live gigs again a couple of years ago, although, sadly, without Mark Pollock, who died last year after an extended battle with cancer. The updated version of the band has been spotted a few times in Austin recently, at Ginny's Little Longhorn, and, just a couple of weeks ago, at the one-of-a-kind Lone Star Court. 

"Christmas Party" was released in 1983 as the "B" side to the single "Christmas in the Congo." Both tunes are exceedingly hard to find these days. I've been searching for the "A" side for several years without any luck, although at least one site reports that it's an original song written by Ted Roddy. That sort of surprised me, as another song by that same name was recorded way back in 1959 by a group called The Marquees. What are the odds?

Here Comes Santa Claus, Part 4

My 2012 holiday mix has 38 tracks and this week I started posting a little background on each of them. We've looked at the first nine tracks already, and today we have two more, each of which is a terrific example of one of the styles I grew up on and still love today. You can't persuade me that today's top sellers are anywhere near as good as this: 

Track 11

Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects, by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings (2009)

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

Based in New York City, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings were formed as part of a greater movement to revive and rejuvenate that delicious brand of 1960s and ‘70s funk and soul that once blared from stereos and transistor radios in cities from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. That’s a pretty tall order in a culture that worships superficiality and considers the 140-character tirades of a bankrupt casino huckster to constitute hard news. But they seem to be making steady progress – and you can’t help but root for them. From the old school riffs on their 2002 debut, Dap-Dippin’ with Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, to the loose sensual energy of their more recent album Soul Time, these guys would have sounded right on in a James Brown Revue or opening up for Sly and the Family Stone. They’re serious and seasoned musicians, most of whom have played with or behind big-name talents and could easily outshine most of the so-called talents whose music sells well today, and when you add Sharon Jones’ powerful and emotive voice to the mix you end up with some truly fine music.

I downloaded Ain’t No Chimneys in the Projects without listening to it shortly after it was released in December 2009. Somehow I filed it in the “Sad and Depressing” folder I kept on the portable hard drive where I store my collection of digital holiday music. Maybe I assumed from the title that this record would tell a “sad and depressing” message? I don’t know. Fortunately, I discovered the song this Fall, as I sought to locate some suitably dark and somber tunes for the alternative mix I made to distribute in the event the President was defeated for re-election. (For more on all that, check out my holiday music website.) Well, the message is anything but sad and depressing. Indeed, it’s one of the most joyous and touching songs in this year’s mix, and it’s the only one to appear on both the official and “apocalyptic alternative” holiday mixes I put together this Fall.

According to Jones, “Ain’t No Chimneys” was something of a happy accident as they were finishing work on their critically acclaimed I Learned the Hard Way album:

This song came from one of those great jams the Dap-Kings have up their sleeve at any time. The band was playing the groove and suddenly the holiday spirit hit me, and with all the thoughts of Christmas it brought me right back to my childhood and I got to thinking about all the questions kids ask, ya know? Is Santa real? How does he fly around the whole world in one night? Ya know, all those kind of questions. And, of course my question was, 'How the hell did Santa get all those presents under my tree when there ain't no chimneys in the projects?'

You’ll have to listen for yourself to figure out the rest, but I can report that the story’s got a pretty damn fine ending.

Track 10

Black Christmas, by the Harlem Children's Chorus (1969)

The Harlem Children's Chorus

This tuneful number was recorded in 1969 and was originally released as part of the album "Christmas Time with the Harlem Children's Chorus" on the Commonwealth United label. It first came to my attention 40 years later when it showed up on the In the Christmas Groove compilation from Strut Records. I wish I could share more information about it than that, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot more information out there about either the song or the Harlem Children's Chorus. There seem to be a few copies of the older album available on eBay, but the closest thing to a review that I've been able to find is a short piece from the Associated Press that was carried by the Observer-Reporter newspaper of Washington, Pennsylvania:

The soloist seems to be a young man of around 13 or 14, I'd guess, and he does a fine job. It's a touching song that harkens back to a different era not only of music but race relations and racial consciousness. I could be wrong, but I sense a certain firm defiance in way the soloist delivers many of the song's most pertinent lyrics:

Bitter days, December nights,

City haze, apartment lights,

In the ghetto,

In the ghetto,

Black Christmas.

In the night a siren wails,

They’re still filling up the jails,

In the ghetto,

In the ghetto,

Black Christmas.

People don’t dream of a Christmas that’s white,

Without a tree in sight,

We have a dream we dream every night:

Black is just as beautiful as white.

Looking for that moment when,

There’s peace on earth, goodwill to men,

In the ghetto,

In the ghetto,

Black Christmas.

In the ghetto,

In the ghetto,

Black Christmas.

Looking for that moment when,

There’s peace on earth, goodwill to men,

In the ghetto,

In the ghetto,

One of these days . . .

Yes, maybe one of these days.