Music for the festival: Schönklang and Schmalz: Christmas albums 2021

Music for the festival
Schönklang and Schmalz: Christmas albums 2021

It’s like the Christmas cookies in October: many weeks before the festival, CDs and vinyl records with reflective songs are in stacks in the shops. The best-known names are by no means always synonymous with the best results. The German press agency presents some new albums.

Till Brönner celebrates three

When one of the most successful German jazz musicians and world-famous trumpeters plays Christmas carols in trio format, the result is no sugar-coated kitsch. With “Christmas” Till Brönner (50) manages to add his own note to well-known material such as “Silent Night” or “Jingle Bells”. With Frank Chastenier (piano) and Christian von Kapphengst (bass), the Berliner succeeded in creating eleven Christmas gems – and Heinz Rühmann’s “La Le Lu” played at the touching end.

The broilers with punk tinsel

The “Santa Claus” songs by the Düsseldorf punk rockers are of a completely different caliber. They are supposed to ensure “that in 2021 the Christmas night will be less quiet than usual”. The album’s entry at number 4 in the charts in mid-November suggests that many a Christmas tree will soon be shaking – like ten years ago with “Santa Muerte”. Twelve covers, including the classics “Driving Home For Christmas” and “Feliz Navidad”, as well as two own songs had to serve this time to decorate the festive season with punk tinsel.

Kelly Clarkson is in good voice

Anyone who is not yet adequately supplied with Mariah Carey’s latest Christmas hit “Fall In Love At Christmas” will find a good dozen encores with this multiple Grammy winner. On “When Christmas Comes Around …” the singer, who became famous in 2002 as the “American Idol” winner, belts out and cheers with such a powerful voice as if she wanted to knock the “Queen of Christmas” off the throne. A quintessentially American mix of swing and scraps of smack, including celebrity guests like Ariana Grande and Chris Stapleton.

Nat “King” Cole greets from beyond

Christmas nostalgia and pop topicality come together in this project. The album “A Sentimental Christmas – Cole Classics Reimagined” presents festival classics by the iconic singer and jazz pianist (1919-1965) – digitally refurbished and supplemented with guest stars such as John Legend, Johnny Mathis, Calum Scott and Gloria Estefan. These musical connections from this to the other seem a bit strange, but on the other hand the pieces interpreted by Cole with a velvety voice are somehow indestructible.

Brian Fallon goes to church

Actually, the US singer is more responsible for folk rock with a punk influence. But before Christmas he shows his melancholy side with traditional hymns on “Night Divine”. “Those were the first songs I ever heard and learned,” the 41-year-old remembers. “So the idea has haunted my head for a long time.” After all: Even with a hymn like “Amazing Grace”, which has already interpreted larger voices, the front man of The Gaslight Anthem does not cut a bad figure.

Hiss Golden Messenger with song jewels

By far not every rock musician gets a good, tasty Christmas record – the project by MC Taylor (46) makes everything spot on on “O Come All Ye Faithful”. After “Quietly Blowing It”, one of the outstanding Americana albums of this year, the band from North Carolina spoiled the listeners with some Christmas standards, but above all with new, self-composed festive songs. Again Taylor and Co. succeed in splendidly sparkling song jewels between southern soul and folk rock.

Norah Jones shines with piano pop

The 42-year-old, with her always slightly sleepy and fundamentally sympathetic voice, could probably also gracefully sing down the telephone directory of her native New York – all the better that she preferred Christmas songs from someone else’s pen. “I Dream Of Christmas”, recorded with a fabulous band, dances between piano jazz, swing and folk pop. When this great pianist and singer starts “White Christmas”, then there is really not much left for the dreamy Christmas happiness.

Jonas Kaufmann makes music in the room

Last year the super tenor succeeded in creating a highly serious, atmospheric Christmas album with “It’s Christmas” – no wonder with this amazing voice. Now there is a lookup: the Extended Edition including seven new titles for the concert tour in December. With the songs he tried “to pay tribute to a musical genre that immediately triggers the Christmas spirit for me, who grew up in Bavaria and Tyrol: the alpine parlor music”, says the 52-year-old opera star.

Ibrahim Maalouf with angel choirs

While Brönner approaches the Christmas music with a lean production, his French-Lebanese trumpeter colleague makes a big splash. Thanks to bell bells and angel choirs, the limit to sentimental lard is often reached on «First Noel». The jazz virtuoso plays 25 classics from “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” to “Winter Wonderland” and three of his own compositions – the Christmas menu dedicated to the little Maaloof son and the recently deceased grandmother is too generous.

Pentatonix entirely vowel

These five a cappella virtuosos from Texas are true assembly line workers of neat Christmas pop. “Evergreen” is the vocal group’s sixth album with songs for the most contemplative time of the year. In addition to “Wonderful Christmastime” or “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”, the work contains collaborations with the Canadian artist Alessia Cara and the popular US violinist Lindsey Stirling. So it could repeat the success of the double platinum predecessor “That’s Christmas To Me”, at least in America.

Martin Stadtfeld likes it classic

If you prefer to hear your music at the festival without bombast, limited to the essentials (i.e. the fine melody), you should listen to this 41-year-old pianist from Koblenz. For “Christmas Piano” he has reworked traditional songs such as “Silent Night, Holy Night”, “Maria durch ein Dornwald” or “In The Bleak Midwinter”, but also an organ work by Johann Sebastian Bach. He also sets his own accents with an eleven-part piano cycle. A deeply comforting Christmas boon.

Lucinda Williams avoids the kitsch

When the grande dame of alternative country music, blues and folk records a Christmas album, she stays true to herself and her raw sound: “Have Yourself A Rockin ‘Little Christmas” is a festival for those tanned by life, even with traditional songs Voice of the 68-year-olds, it doesn’t get emotional. It was definitely a good idea that, in addition to tribute works for Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and the Stones in Lockdown, she also recorded pieces like “Run Run Rudolph” or “Christmas In New Orleans” in her own way.

dpa