Rising young Jazz singer Jose James first posted "The Christmas Song" in 2010. It was mentioned by our good friends at Christmas A Go Go and by the King of Jingaling over at FaLaLaLaLa.com at the time (I keep telling you that man does not live by Stubbys alone). But I'm pretty sure we didn't mention it here since, at the time, it was neither a free download nor available for purchase. Silly me, I didn't check back this year and, as it turns out, James posted the track as a free download a few days before Christmas. So, while it lasts, head to Jose James web site or use the Soundcloud widget above (click on the downward arrow on the right) and grab this super cool and special rendition of "The Christmas Song" from Jose James. The track also features Jazz and Blues legend Junior Mance on the eighty-eights. How cool is that?
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I don't know the first thing about Lili K. Tag says she's from Chicago, so that's something I guess. But I do like this Christmas song. Titled simply enough "A Christmas Song", it's a nice combination of Soul, Jazz, and mellow Hip Hop. And the voice is sweet. Lili K. is reportedly working on a project for release in the coming year, along with collaborator Peter Cottontale. I'll be watching for it. In the meantime, grab this free holiday single on Bandcamp. It's also on Mediafire, if the free downloads run out. 1. Baby, It's Cold Outside 2. Sleigh Ride 2. Masters Of War 4. Santa Baby Our good friend Ken, over at The Sounds Of Christmas, sends word of a free holiday EP from pop rocker's Persephone's Bees. "Sleigh Ride", which appeared on last year's "The Sounds Of Christmas 2" CD, is bloody brilliant and ought to be in your collection already. If not, there's no more reason needed for you to gobble up this free EP. "Santa Baby" was their free contribution to last year's festivities. Bob Dylan's "Masters Of War" and "Baby It's Cold Outside" are newly recorded. The latter gets a snappy and jazzy beat generation workout. Very cool. Head to the Bees' Facebook page--specifically this post--to get the download link. An entire album of Christmas Jazz guitar? Free? Thank you Santa! Visit Chuck Anderson at his home on the web. Here's one to watch in the year ahead. Tatiana Kochkareva has a very unique sound, combining elements of Rock and Jazz and, on this holiday single, tossing in a bit of Ska just because. Usually, when there's an artist working a Jazz/Rock cross platform, they tend to do the whisper thing, but not Tatiana. Tatiana's a Brooklyn girl, so she's got that Brooklyn brash thing going for her, which I love. Tatiana's new album is due out on April 19 and, now that I think she's fully realizing her potential, I'll definitely be looking for it. Not that there was anything wrong with her first two releases--the EPs "Dreamers" and "Roses"--but I think she's hitting on all cylinders now, if "Christmas At Home" and the lead single from the upcoming "Infinity" set, "Winter" (also a free Bandcamp download), are any indication. Get you some Tatiana "Christmas At Home" free at Bandcamp. Do it now, before she runs out of free download credits. And if you want to hear a kick-ass mostly Jazz version of "Jingle Bells", check out an early track from Tatiana on the 2006 album "Universidad Navidena". SIDE A Jingle Bells - Urbie Green & His All-Stars Winter Wonderland - Chet Baker Quartet Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town - Don Patterson Trio (w/ Pat Martino) Christmas Song Pt II - Sonny Stitt White Christmas (Live Xmas Day 1948) - Charlie Parker (w/ Kenny Dorham & Max Roach) Swingin' For Christmas - Gene Ammons Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town - Paul Bley Trio (w/ Charles Mingus & Art Blakey) SIDE B Sleigh Ride - Herb Geller Quartet Winter Sequence: Suite for Rhythmic Reindeer - Leonard Feather (w/ Ralph Burns) 1) Dasher - featuring Herbie Mann 2) Prancer - featuring Ralph Burns 3) Blitzen - featuring Joe Wilder Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town - Bill Evans Trio Dashing Through The Snow - Duke Ellington Orchestra Andy Cirzan's annual mix is up on the WBEZ Sound Opinions page, which is a bit of a surprise because Andy had announced last year he was done with the Christmas mixes. This year, Andy's taken a hard left turn into Jazz.
Andy's mixes are presented as LP sides, so, in essence, there are two continuous cuts. Andy, aka DJ Lo-Fi, shares his creations and the stories behind them on Sound Opinions, a show on Chicago Public Radio station, WBEZ. Then the mix is made available for free download until the first of the year, at which time it disappears. So go get "Swingin Snowflakes", Andy's 21st voyage into holiday obscura. If you're knowledge of holiday Jazz is slight to middling, this is an excellent foundational mix containing most of the great artists of the genre's golden age. I've been doing Jazz mixes for a good long time so there aren't any surprises here for me. Unlike Andy's previous mixes, everything here, with the probable exception of Urbie Green, is available on CD or as a digital download. 1.Marksmen - O Holy Night 2.Rebekah Pulley and David Russell - Baby, It's Cold Outside 3.Geri X - I'll Be Home So Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas 4.The Vodkanauts - You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch 5.November Rush (featuring Javie) - Last Christmas 6.The Ditchflowers - I'm Feelin' Christmas 7.Carl von dem Bussche - Seventh Avenue 8.Ronnie Dee - O' Come All Ye Faithful / We Three Kings 9.Crash Mitchell - St. Nick Boogie 10.Jonathan Sinclair - One Fine Day 11.Dan Bakst - Christmas Day 12.Jeremy Gloff - Christmas Alone 13.Barely Pink - Mr. Heatmiser 14.Rebekah Pulley - December 25th 15.Bite Size (with Mike O'Neill) - Brains Not Included DOWNLOAD FREE FROM BANDCAMP A little late to the party on this one, but well worth bringing to your attention--or reminding you, if you've heard of it already. As a general rule, it takes me awhile to get with a collection with a lot of tracks; singles are quicker. There's a little bit of something for everyone on this Indie collection of Tampa's finest. There's folk, rock, pop, even a nice little ambient number from Jonathan Sinclair. My personal faves here are The Vodkanauts "Grinch" (catch that guitar solo at the end), November Rush's really nice interpretation of the otherwise overdone "Last Christmas", Crash Mitchell's completely irreverent "St. Nick Boogie", and "Brains Not Included", an excellent psych rock track from Bite Size. But there aren't many misses in this 15 song collection--just solid hits. Fly to Bandcamp to download this one before they run out of free downloads. Should you choose to drop a coin or two in the pot, you should know that all proceeds go to benefit The Children's Home in Tampa.
1. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 2. Bethlehem House Of Bread 3. Mary Had A Baby 4. Hark 5. Little Baby 6. Jingle Bells 7. Christmas On Cripple Creek 8. I Dreamed Of Christmas 9. When The Christmas Baby Cries 10. Holy Christmas Day DOWNLOAD FROM NOISETRADE I've been a fan of the Annie Moses Band since I discovered their wonderful Christmas albums a few years back. Ostensibly, they're a Contemporary Christian group, but their instrumentation is sort of Bluegrass meets Rock and their arrangements can sometimes venture into out-and-out Jazz or even Progressive Rock--"fiddle fusion" they call it. Annie (technically not the Annie this family band is named after--that would be her great-grandmother) plays a mean fiddle, too, so you're sure to catch dramatic classical flourishes as well. That kind of creativity deserves applause. One of my Annie Moses Band favorites is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". Well, the group has packaged up an entire album's worth of their Christmas music and the set leads off with "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". And they're giving it away free through Noisetrade. So here's your chance to sample this awesome band and it won't cost you a cent (unless you choose to Tip the band). I won't speak to the rest of the set--there are a lot of ballads here (the vocals are reminiscent of Alison Krauss by the way)--but you're gonna love "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". "Christmas On Cripple Creek" is kinda fun, too. Head to Noisetrade and get you some Annie. If you like what you hear, head to the Annie Moses Band web site and buy their Christmas special--two Christmas albums, a Christmas DVD and the band's "String Crossings" CD--for the holiday price of just $19.95.
Although David Ian gets the credit at the top of the post, there are several Christmas songs you can download, free and legal, through Jesusfreakhideout, plus many non-Christmas songs as well. I gave David the top billing because his record is new and hot and I, myself, wanted to hear something from the album longer than 30 seconds. Jesusfreakhideout is one of the top Contemporary Christian web site/blogs on the 'Net. It's one of my goto sites to see what's upcoming in Christmas music from the CCM artists. There are listings, news items, reviews...and freebies! It's a full service web site. The free tunes are all provided by labels and artists who understand what a positive tool Jesusfreakhideout has been and can be in spreading the word about their music. In addition to "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" from David Ian, which is a sweet modern Lounge rendition of the old hymn featuring Acacia on vocals, Jesusfreakhideout also has free Christmas downloads from FFH, Jadon Lavik, Elevation Worship and older holiday selections from Sara Groves, Sixpence None The Richer and The Great Transparency. I won't bother listing the non-Christmas freebies, but you might want to bookmark Jesusfreakhideout for future reference. Stella Artois is a Belgian lager maker--in business since 1926. But, lately, they've been making music, too. Holiday music. If Heineken thinks those elaborate ads featuring the music of bands like The Asteroids Galaxy Tour and Mohammed Rafi are cool (and they truly are), Stella Artois seeks to go one step further by actually creating new music that has that swank retro cool. Last year, Stella Artois put out a beautiful version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" (sung in French, it's "Les 12 Jours de Noel") from Israeli singer Rosi Golan. It was really just an extended version of the music for their commercials, but someone over there thought it would be good promotion to make a free download available for the holiday season. Well, somebody give that man or woman a raise. The promotion was a huge success and brought tremendous attention and traffic to the Stella Artois web site. So this year, those little old beer makers have put together a full album of newly recorded ultra-cool 60s styled jazz. They brought together noted composers Gordon Minette, James Leibow, Andy Bloch and others, as well as arranger Dan Block. They used period recording equipment to keep it real and even meticulously crafted vintage cover art (which I'm told includes a vintage turntable and stylus carved out of ice). The full 8 song album "Under The Holiday Star" will be available for free download shortly (we'll let you know). But, just to wet your whistle a bit, Stella Artois has released the "Nutcracker March" in advance of the full set. Just head to the Stella Artois web site and enter your birthdate (it's alcohol, people) and then click to download. Hmmmmm. I love the taste of free holiday Jazz in the morning. Unfortunately, you can't download the Rosi Golan track anymore and it's not included on the album, but you can stream it on YouTube if you missed it last year. |
The FREE ListHere we hope to direct you to some of the Christmas music on the web that can be yours absolutely free. We will not direct you to mp3 or sharity sites, here, but only to artist sites, label sites, and other authorized and unquestionably legal locations. Archives2010 Free List Categories
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