Tommy Smith has made a serious jazz album that takes the raw material of familiar Christmas staples and builds them into much more elaborate harmonic structures.
Tommy Smith – tenor saxophone
Gareth Williams – piano
Orlando Le Fleming – bass
Sebastiaan De Krom – drums
All music arranged by by Tommy Smith Recorded live in Glasgow on 22 December 2001
Friday, December 20, 2002
This might sound a bit of a turkey, as you might say, since it’s composed entirely of Christmas songs, played by Scottish saxophonist Smith and a trio. But it’s impressive how well the sentimentality is replaced by a mysterious, almost abstract air. Winter Wonderland becomes a glimmering musical landscape rather than a Christmas card, with Smith’s haunting tenor sax curling over Gareth Williams’ enigmatic piano riff, and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen is a hard-toned, thundering Coltrane-quartet swinger. Smith’s superb tone control at low volumes poignantly reinvents Silent Night; Auld Lang Syne has a cocky strut to it, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas murmurs like a drier Ben Webster before turning to the lazy mid-tempo swing effortlessly furnished by Orlando le Fleming (bass) and Sebastiaan de Krom (drums). Whatever he does, Smith sounds like a man in charge these days.
The Guardian, John Fordham
