Matt Wilson: Tree Jazz – The Shape of Christmas to Come

PALMETTO RECORDS (RELEASED OCTOBER 25, 2024)

In the true spirit of Christmas, three wise men bring you gifts of music, merriment and mischief. The three wise men (or musical wise guys might be more appropriate) are drummer Matt Wilson, reed player Jeff Lederer and bassist Paul Sikivie, and the gift they come bearing is Tree Jazz: The Shape of Christmas to Come, the newest release from
Matt Wilson’s Christmas Tree-O. Like their 2010 release, the band introduces us to their unique take on seven holiday favorites and two new holidays tunes. Among the more familiar tunes is “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” with Sikivie handling the melody while Wilson adds the obligatory cymbal hits to represent the bells and Lederer wails on an Ayler-esque tenor solo. Lederer switches to clarinet for “Good King Wenceslas,” a tune that provides Wilson with an opportunity to display his meticulous and creative brush work. Wilson’s drumming on “Up on the Rooftop” captures the frantic pace of Santa scampering from rooftop to rooftop to get his job done. “Do You Hear the Bells” gets a funky beat as the band morphs that classic into the Queen and David Bowie classic “Under Pressure,” complete with a vocal choir of Mary LaRose, Audrey Wilson and Gregory Rodriguez. The choir returns for “Si Me Dan Pasteles,” a Puerto Rican Christmas tune, counting the eight nights of Chanukah on the Sephardic “Light Candles” and a Jeff Lederer original “Shine Your Light.” There’s a fast ride through the woods on Gerry Mulligan’s “Rocker,” a contrafact based on Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” and a sonic concoction honoring Mariah Carey and saxophone legend Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre called “Mariah Parusha.” It all adds up to a joyous season of holiday music, and like most holiday items, it is on the shelf before Halloween!

BOTTOM LINE: The Christmas season has never been more jolly thanks to the music of Matt Wilson’s Christmas Tree-O. The ensemble celebrates its 15^th year with the release of Tree Jazz: The Shape of Jazz to Come, and like their first release the band adds their sense of musical humor and adventure to seven familiar holiday classics, plus some new tunes to make your season bright!