The “mischievous Midwestern boy from Knoxville, Illinois” really shines through on Tree Jazz: The Shape of Christmas to Come, drummer Matt Wilson’s second recorded outing with his winter holiday trio Christmas Tree-O. I mean, who else would mash up the syrupy modern Christmas classic “Do You Hear What I Hear?” with the Queen/Bowie megahit “Under Pressure.”? It’s an homage to a frankly catchy if ultimately annoying pop carol that at the same time acknowledges the stress many of us feel during the holidays.
The Christmas Tree-O is Wilson on drums with multi-reed player Jeff Lederer and bassist Paul Sikivie. They’re as versatile a bunch as you’ll find in any jazz club or lounge, and they shine on this energetic album. Lederer is quite impressive on tenor and soprano sax as well as clarinet, but the whole program showcases the strengths of all three as well as their intuitive interplay.
Frankly, some of this album is a bit manic for my taste. I mean, as they hint at in “Do You Hear What I Hear? / Under Pressure,” it can be a stressful time. And tracks like their take on what Ornette Coleman might have sounded like playing “Up On The Rooftop,” or the squawking, tumbling free improv of “Maria Parusha” (“a sonic concoction honoring pop diva Mariah Carey and the avant-garde saxophone legend, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre”) are a bridge too far for me, this time of year anyway. Also, even though I appreciate Gerry Mulligan’s “contrafact” rearrangement of the classic “Sleigh Ride” I’ll be skipping it along with those other two. Your mileage may vary, as they say (and I’ll add that these would be killer to see live).
But for those who, like me, appreciate a good swinging jazzy take on a Christmas song, there’s a lot here. Bassist Sikivie gets to strut his stuff on the opener “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” which does indeed swing like crazy. And the Tree-O dramatically slows down “Good King Wenceslas” and gives Wilson a chance to demonstrate his superb brush technique. Lederer wails on the clarinet (and the rhythm section goes all Copacabana) on the Puerto Rican Christmas song “Si Me Dan Pasteles,” as well as the Ladino Hanukkah song “Little Candles,” which has a bit of klezmer to it though it apparently started out as a Sephardic song.
And I absolutely love Lederer’s composition “Shine Your Light” (Dawn Clement on piano), which was inspired by a Yoko Ono poem of the same title. On several of these pieces there are very fine vocal contributions from the Treedom Singers (Mary LaRose, Audrey Wilson and Gregory Rodriguez) and either Mary or Audry recites Ono’s poem at the top of this one. Put this one on your holiday party playlist.
(Palmetto Records, 2024)
