Harlem Children’s Chorus – “Black Christmas”

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Various Artists
Strut Records
(2009)

Every winter, people can’t get enough of cardigan-wearing Christmas songs or cheese metal renditions of holiday classics. For example, who can forget the 1994 classic Merry Christmas by Mariah Carey? You’re bound to hear “All I Want for Christmas Is You” on FM radio or your local chain store at some point this winter. There’s nothing wrong with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra or the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. People want to be reminded of Christmas days past when the songs didn’t seem so saccharine or silly or god-awful. I’m not sure if people actually enjoy Alvin and the Chipmunks singing “Christmas Don’t Be Late” as they do thinking back on their childhood. The songs are meant to invoke some nostalgic feeling, but that shouldn’t preclude Christmas from having some soul.

The last satisfactory holiday record I heard was Sufjan Stevens’ Songs for Christmas (2006), but even then I have to be in the right mood for all the theatrics and merry-making. I won’t be listening to Bob Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart (2009) anytime soon — not because I don’t like Bob Dylan or Christmas (I do) but I don’t feel comfortable with those two things together. So what’s good? Strut Records put together a compilation of sixties and seventies Christmas soul, funk and blues that is less perfect white cottage in the suburbs and more James Brown in a Santa suit doling out funk in the city. In The Christmas Groove collects 14 tracks from rare 45 B-sides that should define the true American holiday.

This is a Christmas record for the weary bluesman (Jimmy Reed’s “Christmas Present Blues”), the funky soul sample (Electric Jungle’s “Funky Funky Christmas”) and holiday dancing (Funk Machine’s “Soul Santa”). The Harlem Children’s Chorus sings about Christmas “in the ghetto” in “Black Christmas,” a beautiful ode to the holidays that delivers its message (“black is just as beautiful as white”) without sentimentality. The Harvey Averne Band’s “Let’s Get It Together This Christmas” and Jimmy Jules’ “The New Year” remind me of a blaxploitation Christmas, a refreshing alternative to whatever else Middle America has in store for the holidays. A great way for this Christmas to not suck, In The Christmas Groove infuses some soul into a time of year that’s otherwise been drained of its spirit.

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For more info, visit http://www.strut-records.com/node/228

via Abe Ahn, 7 December 2009 12:46pm | 1 |