Joe Gransden and his Big Band Make the Holidays Swing with The Christmas Song

Joe Gransden and his Big Band The Christmas Song

With the first flurries of snow, the smell of wood burning in an open hearth and a brisk winter chill settling into the morning air, everyone is getting ready to enjoy a festive holiday season this year. Whether you’ll be trimming a Christmas tree, stringing decorative lights on your house or lighting a menorah these wonderful rituals are always better completed with some holiday music playing in the background. I myself can’t wait till Thanksgiving has past to bring out my stack of Christmas jazz.  My collection is an eclectic mix of old and new. Some of my favorites include Frank Sinatra’s A Jolly Christmas, Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, Ted Rosenthal’s Wonderland, Marcus Roberts’ Prayer for Peace and a couple of collections Jazz to the World and A Jazzy Wonderland to name just a few.

This year I got a chance to preview the new Joe Gransden Big Band Holiday recording The Christmas Song and suffice it to say I have a new album to add to my holiday collection. The Atlanta based bandleader/trumpeter/vocalist has put together a fabulous album with his knock out big band and a gorgeous string section that is a must have for anyone who loves their holiday music served up hot, jazzy and with some swing.

Balladeer Gransden has been leading his big band since as far back as 2006. Keeping such a large group together for such an extended period is a testament to Joe’s hard work and determination to preserve the big band sound. His rotating group of first-call, local musicians are all standouts, many of them performing nationally, some well-respected educators teaching a new crop of jazz students at prestigious universities, all dedicated to the greater sound of this big band.

Gransden has a medium timbre, silk glove of a voice that has been burnished by long exposure and careful study of such vocal greats as Sinatra and Bennett mixed with the more contemporary sounds of Bobby Darin and Harry Connick Jr.  He is an affable character who engages with his audience with a self-deprecating humor and a million-dollar smile. 

On this album Gransden selects fourteen holiday songs, many old-time favorites mixed in with a sprinkling of the blues. All are rendered bristling and new by fresh arrangements that utilize the band’s big sound with a few augmented by a lush string section.

The opener “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” finds Joe’s mellifluous tenor fronting a rousing arrangement by Jeff Jarvis which just propels you off your seat. The strong walking bass by Starkey and brief but bright piano solo by Banks is complimented by a gorgeous string accompaniment.

The children’s classic “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” features a wonderfully swinging brass arrangement by Wes Funderburk with Joe crooning away with true Sinatra swagger. The band cooks, as the big round sound of bassist Starkey takes a solo before John Sandfort wails on his tenor.

Christmas can also bring the blues to some and Joe’s Sinatra-esque “That’s Life” sounding version of the Charles Brown and Gene Redd “Please Come Home for Xmas” is made all the more poignant with some stirring saxophone work by altoist Mace Hibbard behind the Jeff Jarvis arrangement.

The band is given free rein to rock on the festive “Winter Wonderland” on an Eric Alexander arrangement.

Perhaps my favorite on the album is the very hip Jim Basile arrangement of the Nat King Cole favorite “Nature Boy.” The band just slays on this one and Gransden offers some of his finest trumpet solo work on this classic. Starkey and Varnes keep the pace swinging and Banks accompaniment is subtle and superb. Gransden’s voice is at his most sincere and he hits some difficult notes with a polished panache.

No holiday album would be complete without a version of “A Christmas Song” dutifully playing with a yule log burning in the fireplace in the background. No one can approach the iconic sound of Nat Cole on this classic, but Gransden does a credible job of singing it with humble believability. The big band is missing here, but for the bass, the piano, Sam Skelton on flute and Jeff Jarvis' flugelhorn backed by a sea of strings.

Another favorite is the slick arrangement by Wes Funderburk on the hip “Cool Yule.” I’ve never heard this song before, but it will easily be added to my Christmas song rotation at home. Here Gransden sings this swinger with a cool aplomb, encouraging the trombone section before rendering his own soaring trumpet solo. Vocalist John Hopkins lends his raspy voice near the end in a short duet with Gransden for the finale.

The band is given another chance to use its multiple voices on a frantic version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” with another spectacular arrangement by lead trombonist Wes Funderburk. Tenor man John Sandfort gets the call on this one and tears it up on his horn as the band pulses behind him. Gransden gets another feature on trumpet which he uses to play a dancing solo that he brings to a soaring climax.  The band simmers to a boil.

The album continues with “It’s A Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” which is played in two different tempos.

The perennial “White Christmas” has a Woody Herman, Four Brothers inspired, saxophone section feature, arranged by Vince Norman, that just swings in wonderful synchronicity. Gransden offers a warm flugelhorn solo in contrast. 

The heartwarming “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is deftly arranged as a quartet piece by pianist Banks and opens with a muted trumpet played by Gransden that he overdubs against his own mellow vocal. 

 “Angels We Have Heard on High” is played with a big boisterous sound by the big band. This Eric Alexander arrangement calls for two trumpets at different registers often playing simultaneously, with Gransden taking the lower register solo and lead trumpeter Kevin Lyons taking the higher part, at times sounding very baroque in his attack.  

The last two songs are both based on a Wes Funderburk arrangement of “Holly Jolly Christmas.” Drummer Varnes leads off with a cadenced snare solo that leads into a fun call and response saxophone duel between altoists Mace Hibbard and Sam Skelton. The band is pumping on this and Gransden’s vocal delivery is smooth and cheerful. They end the album with a brief reprise of the chorus.

If you’re like me and enjoy a month or so of holiday sounds bellowing throughout your home, then Joe Gransden and his Big Band’s The Christmas Song is a must have.

Personnel : Mace Hibbard, lead alto; Sam Skelton, alto saxophone; John Sandfort, tenor saxophone: Mike Walton, tenor saxophone; Don Erdman, baritone, saxophone;  Wes Funderburk, lead trombone, Tom Gibson, trombone, Kevin Hyde, trombone; Lee Watts, bass trombone; Chip Crotts, lead trumpet; Clark Hunt, lead trumpet; Kevin Lyons, trumpet; Hardin Butcher, trumpet; Melvin Jones, trumpet; Kenny Banks Sr. piano; Neal Starkey, bass; Justin Varns, drums.

Strings: Violins, Mary Burndrett, David Edwards, Ginny Respress Fairchild, Kathryn Koch, Angele Lawless, Patrick Ryan, Jessica Stinson and Andy Zabrinski. Cellos: Barney Culver, Roy Harran, Strings Contractor: Jonathan Wright. Strings Conducted by Jeff Jarvis.

Recorded at Brighter Shade Studios, Atlanta, GA by John Driskell Hopkins and Thom “TK” Kidd

September 5^th , 6^th  & 7^th  2017.

Last Night On Clairmont: A Night of Magic

Sam Skelton,  Justin Varnes, Delbert Felix and Brian Hogans 

Last night, at a local restaurant in the shadows of Emory University called the Mason Tavern on Clairmont Road in North Decatur, I was fortunate to be able to experience some of the best live jazz that I have seen since arriving to the Atlanta area from the New York metro area two and one-half years ago. Four extraordinary, locally based, musicians came together and did an impromptu, two-set show at proprietor Sam Yi’s latest bastion of jazz, The Mason Tavern.

You may remember Sam from his nearly twenty-year run as the proprietor of the now closed Churchill Grounds jazz club in downtown next to the Fox theater. Churchill Grounds was a beacon of light, hope and support for the jazz community here in Atlanta and Yi expects to open a new club in Grant Park sometime early next year under the same banner. The original club closed in July of last year and for the last six months or so Yi set up a pop-up jazz night in conjunction with local musician Terrence Harper at this new location in North Decatur.  I have been going frequently to the club on Thursday nights where Harper and Yi usually provides a core band of local professionals that are then augmented by other local musicians, who are encouraged to sit in with the band. It has been especially rewarding to see young musicians, some from great distances, come to sit in and get an opportunity to hone their skills in a real-life session with other professionals and in front of an audience.

This past Friday night, however, was something special. Brian Hogans, Sam Skelton, Delbert Felix and Justin Varnes put on one of the most rewarding sets of music that I have seen in a long time. A little background on these musicians can give you an idea of just how special this event was. 

Brian Hogans

Brian Hogans is a thirty-five-year old alto saxophonist/pianist, who hails from Morrow, GA and has been playing jazz since he was fifteen years old. His superlative technique and inventive harmonic sensibility has attracted a great deal of attention beyond the local Atlanta scene, where he is considered among the finest saxophonists in the South. Brian’s fiery work, particularly on alto, has been featured in his own groups as well as groups led by drummer E.J. Strickland, trumpeters Russell Gunn, Etienne Charles and Sean Jones and Hogans can often be seen in the saxophone section of Joe Gransden’s Big Band.

Sam Skelton

Saxophonist Sam Skelton is a phenomenally gifted player as well as an influential educator and current Director of Jazz Studies at Kennesaw State University. As a multi-reed player of exceptional talent, Skelton’s work can be heard on everything from the music of Elton John to the London Symphony Orchestra. He has credits on over two hundred and fifty recordings. 

Delbert Felix

Delbert Felix’s is one of those bass players that just makes you smile when you see him play. Originally inspired by the electric funk bass work of Bootsie Collins and Larry Graham, Felix is an in-demand upright player in his own right. His style is ebullient and his fingers are fleet, but it is his joyous love of what he does that makes his playing so special. Felix’s pedigree include work with Wynton, Brandford and Ellis Marsalis, iconic tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, fusion drummer Billy Cobham and local crooner legend Freddie Cole amongst others.

Justin Varnes

Drummer Justin Varnes did his formal musical education at the University of North Florida with saxophone legend Bunky Green and later continued his education in New York at the New School. He is a working drummer who has an abundance of technique, but more importantly a boatload of taste. He has toured with singer Phoebe Snow and has played with everyone from trombonist Wycliffe Gordon to piano icon Kenny Baron. Justin has on online teaching website called Jazz Drummer’s Resource where he shares some of his techniques with students. Locally he is often the go to drummer in groups led by trumpeter Joe Gransden and the pianists Kevin Bales and Gary Motley among others.

With such a formidable group of talent on hand, I expected the music to be both challenging and entertaining. The group ran through the opening song, Thelonious Monk’s “Green Chimneys” and we were off to the races. Hogans and Skelton both playing synchronously and traded licks, never sounding alike or for that matter like anyone else but themselves. They spurred each other and the rhythm section on to new heights. Varnes and Felix set the pace perfectly for these two to go off on the quirky melody. The songs were excellent selections from the jazz canon.

The group just morphed from one into the other: “All Blues,” with Hogans sounding like Cannonball, I’ll Remember April,” “Body and Soul” with Skelton sounding very Webster-esque, a Coltrane inspired tune that sounded like it was based on “Giant Steps” and a Freddie Hubbard classic “First Light.” The group continued with the Ellington/Tizol classic “Caravan” and then a hard bop tune from Horace Silver “Doodlin’.”

As drummer Varnes explained to me at the break, the group decided to choose a set of songs that were familiar to all, but then to let their creative abilities to improvise propel where the group would take the music. The result was electric, daring and totally enjoyable. The audience was engrossed with the unexpected twists and turns that each musician brought to the party. Unexpected gems around every corner. The music was surprisingly elastic, allowing for stretching ideas into new territory, spurring new paths of invention from each member.

The group took no break between songs, preferring to allow the last idea to unfold into the next tune organically. Bassist Felix was a joy to behold as he often danced with his upright in a display of oneness with his instrument. Varnes utilized all the sticks, mallets and brushes at his disposal, made his snare, toms and cymbals sing with purpose, while never missing a beat. Hogans and Skelton were like two lions trading roars, brandishing their claws at times or laying back on their regal haunches taking in the scene that they just instigated. It was creativity at its best, spontaneous, unrehearsed and magical.

After a short intermission, the group returned and finished the second set with “Invitation,” Joe Henderson's "Recorda Mi" Mal Waldorn's "Alone Together"  and “There Will Never Be Another You.” They ended as they began with a  Monk tune. 

These guys will return to the Mason Tavern again tonight for a repeat performance starting at 9pm. If you love jazz or just great music the way I do, you owe it to yourself to get down there and catch these artist and be part of this magic. Chemistry like this doesn’t occur that often, so don’t miss this chance to support live music at its best. The Mason Tavern is at 1371 Clairmont Road, Decatur, GA 30033.