Southwest Christmas jazz?
December 25, 2012 12:05 PM
I just heard a recognizable piece of music at a Christmas event, but can't name it.
General characteristics are that it has what I would call a Southwestern feel but it was in a jazzy motif (possibly just because of the make-up of the group). The main tune was possibly a tenor saxophone (but may have actually been played by a keyboard, I didn't see the brass on stage). The song reminded me a lot of Ravel's "Bolero" but was not Bolero or a Christmas arrangement of it, and didn't have the march feeling of the Bolero harmony. The sax line had a series of notes that would match very closely with the Fiddler on the Roof line "Is this the little girl I carried?" but instead of repeating and then a counterpoint, it drops an octave and you have a fillip or flourish more like "Bolero". It did not, however, have the same overall feel of building tempo and intensity like Bolero.
Because all of the other music was dead-familiar Christmas standards ("Santa Claus is Comin' to Town", "White Christmas", etc.) I'm pretty certain this one had a holiday motif as well. And as I say, I know I've heard it before.
General characteristics are that it has what I would call a Southwestern feel but it was in a jazzy motif (possibly just because of the make-up of the group). The main tune was possibly a tenor saxophone (but may have actually been played by a keyboard, I didn't see the brass on stage). The song reminded me a lot of Ravel's "Bolero" but was not Bolero or a Christmas arrangement of it, and didn't have the march feeling of the Bolero harmony. The sax line had a series of notes that would match very closely with the Fiddler on the Roof line "Is this the little girl I carried?" but instead of repeating and then a counterpoint, it drops an octave and you have a fillip or flourish more like "Bolero". It did not, however, have the same overall feel of building tempo and intensity like Bolero.
Because all of the other music was dead-familiar Christmas standards ("Santa Claus is Comin' to Town", "White Christmas", etc.) I'm pretty certain this one had a holiday motif as well. And as I say, I know I've heard it before.
The bolero thing makes me think it was maybe "Little Drummer Boy".
posted by bunglin jones at 12:32 AM on December 26, 2012
posted by bunglin jones at 12:32 AM on December 26, 2012
No, and no -- I definitely would have known the latter, and there really wasn't a spare percussion thing. I just hoped to highlight how it was a wind instrument carrying the melody.
I have an e-mail out now to someone who can probably tell me the name of the group, so I guess I'll track it down that way....
posted by dhartung at 9:10 AM on December 26, 2012
I have an e-mail out now to someone who can probably tell me the name of the group, so I guess I'll track it down that way....
posted by dhartung at 9:10 AM on December 26, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=sUfcUreoZPw&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DsUfcUreoZPw&gl=GB
posted by sagwalla at 3:39 PM on December 25, 2012