RECORD REVIEWS
Only 12 albums a year get to be Recordings of the Month in Stereophile, and only a few are jazz. Typically, they are “big” records by major jazz artists.
Christmas Vibes has the majorartist part covered. Warren Wolf is one of the two most important vibraphonists to enter jazz in the new millennium. (The other is Joel Ross.) Wolf’s album is not a masterwork, but it is a lovely, heartfelt offering that deserves its place in this magazine’s December issue. In this year of years, in this holiday season observed in a pandemic, it arrives like a life-affirming antidote to darkness.
Here’s a challenge for you: Try to listen to “Sleigh Ride” and “Winter Wonderland” without smiling. You may find it impossible not to get up and dance. Wolf’s group, with bassist Jeff Reed and drummer Carroll “CV” Dashiell III, finds it impossible not to swing their butts off. “Sleigh Ride” and “Winter Wonderland” are among the most familiar songs in American culture, but the former has never pranced with such headlong, ecstatic energy, and the latter has a new throbbing groove.
If all Wolf did was play such tunes straight, this would be a fun record. But he finds opportunities everywhere to unleash his vast vibraphone technique and his inspired imagination. It is fascinating to hear how, after lightly bouncing over the top of “O Christmas Tree,” he flows into long, elaborate lines that keep changing direction and eventually wind their way back to the song.
While the prevailing mood is one of celebration, there are also moments that touch deeper emotions and memories. It is quietly captivating when, on the second track, some pensive piano chords, widely spaced bass markings, and cymbal whisperings turn into “Do You Hear What I Hear?” Bing Crosby has owned this song forever; Wolf borrows it for a while. As he carefully delineates the melody, his notes hang in the air as if reluctant to leave the song. “Do You Hear What I Hear?” becomes a continuous series of calls and ascending responses; it sounds newly triumphant. The vibraphone can do that. Its voluptuous bell tones make any melody sound more permanent.
was recorded in mid-March 2020, as the
