’Tis The Season to…Dig Jazz

REVIEW: “It’s A Jazzy Christmas” at Proctors GE Theater, Solstice Night 2024

Saturday night, as “Melodies of Christmas” played on Proctors Main Stage, “It’s A Jazzy Christmas” celebrated the season in Proctors more intimate GE Theater.

Since pianist-leader David Gleason and Sal Prizio assembled this revue 15 winters ago around Vince Guaraldi’s happy Peanuts TV specials, and gift-wrapped familiar tunes in an antique radio-show format, it’s become one of our longest-running and most entertaining seasonal favorites.

It’s A Jazz Christmas, from left: David Gleason, piano; Hannah Amigo, vocals; Brian Patneaude, saxophone; Mike Lawrence, bass; Chris Pasin, trumpet; Pete Sweeney (obscured by) Ben O’Shea, trombone

And very deservedly so; Saturday’s show brought virtuoso all-star quality to this ever-evolving evening. It was actually two evenings; “It’s a Jazzy Christmas also played Friday at Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs. But we digress.

Saturday’s show wove new elements among the time-honored threads of Vince Guaraldi’s beloved Peanuts soundtracks, crafting a colorful quilt of music and humor that warmed everyone in the sold out venue. The crowd sang along when invited, though softly, as if leaving the melodies to the pros.

Gleason was clearly the leader of this easy-flowing 100-minute Solstice-night revue, even before he donned a Yellow Cab cap to set up a playful “Baby It’s Cold Outside” duet of singers Hannah Amigo and Mike McCord. (McCord also doubled as the radio announcer.) The three framed “Baby” as a tentatively romantic curbside pick-up to humorous effect, but also featured McCord acknowledging “your body, your choice” in his courtship rap.

He later cited “political nonsense” in the season’s call for harmony and unity; but present-day angst had no chance to bring things down amid the evening’s powerful evocation of both.

Art D’Echo Trio, from left: David Gleason, piano; Mike Lawrence, bass; Pete Sweeney, drums

The start felt cozy: a radio-style chat from McCord then “Christmas Is Coming” and “Skating” – both from Guaraldi’s “Peanuts” songbook and both featuring the Art D’Echo Trio, Gleason’s nucleus for the revue with longtime bandmates Mike Lawrence, bass; and Pete Sweeney, drums.

Bandmates came and went, first singer Hannah Amigo in “Christmas Time Is Here,” then the horns, pumping up “Jingle Bells” as a jaunty mambo after playful false starts. Brian Patneaude played tenor sax mostly, but bass clarinet some; alongside trumpeter Chris Pasin and trombonist (and bass-trombonist) Ben O’Shea. Area jazz fans have heard them all, many times, but maybe never as fine and fun as Saturday, especially Gleason, an elegant rocket on the keys.

While song intros sometimes reached for laughs, and got them, the playing was always confidently smooth; just as Art D’Echo Trio has played together for decades and sometimes backed stars from out of town, Gleason and the horns are longtime mainstays of Keith Pray’s Big Soul Ensemble.

They aimed for comfort, or for awe in their aggressive, modernist take on “We Three Kings” (a Chris Pasin arrangement and feature), and sometimes for the funny bone with “The Grinch” featuring low-register playing.

The can’t-miss tunes dependably hit their mark with familiar charm, but also some variations: Amigo’s torchy “Santa Baby” seduced while her duet with Gleason in “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” felt like a warm quilt pulled up over the knees.

Meanwhile, more adventurous fans delighted in surprises, new this year. Anybody who’s heard these shopping-mall-battered, over-familiar favorites had to savor the cascading-note creativity of “We Three Kings,” the hilariously localized “12 Days of Christmas” duet by Gleason and McCord citing “four-mer governors,” “787,” “Alive at Five” and, wrapping every incremental verse, “a Market 32 gift card.”

David Gleason and Mike McCord

Next in this mid-set highlight reel came “Oh, Holy Night” as a soul-jazz reverie, Amigo’s voice soaring high; and a trio version of “O, Tannenbaum.” The trio also sparkled in “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel” as Gleason taffy-pulled the tempo and Lawrence and Sweeney kept right up. “The Man with the Bag” (yeah, you got it) swung 1950s style, while “Dig that Crazy Santa Claus” bopped with beatnik flair.

The horn players got out to play: especially Patneaude in his zippy romp through the Coltrane-esque“Sleigh Ride,” Pasin in his arraignment of “We Three Kings” and an elegant muted solo in “Winter Wonderland” and O’Shea in the jaunty cha-cha “Feliz Navidad.” And they got to close the show by second-line parading off-stage at the end.

This was NOT your choir director’s holiday show – not that there’s anything wrong with THAT – but it was something special: smart, sharp, silly and all kinds of sweet.

Setlist

Christmas Is Coming

Skating

Christmastime Is Here

Jingle Bells Mambo

The Grinch Theme

Winter Wonderland > Let it Snow

Santa Baby

Sleigh Ride

Feliz Navidad

We Three Kings

Twelve Days of Christmas