Jazz recordings swing in the holidays
Who says holiday albums have to be banal?
Not the most creative artists, who turn overly familiar fare into music worth hearing.
Following are the best seasonal jazz recordings of new and recent vintage:
Joel Paterson: "Hi-Fi Christmas Guitar" (Ventrella Records). Chicago guitarist Paterson has released one of the most disarming, joyous jazz recordings of this holiday season. As its retro title implies, "Hi-Fi Christmas Guitar" revivifies age-old Christmas tunes via a mid-20th century sensibility. But the overdubbing, reverb effects and clean-lined lyricism of this work sounds anything but old-fashioned. Paterson is joined by bassist Beau Sample and drummer Alex Hall in
