The Brian Setzer Orchestra 'Boogie Woogie Christmas" 2003🎅🏼🎅🏼🎅🏼

From Jethro Tull to Twisted Sister, Bob Dylan to Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Beach Boys to Eric Clapton, every rocker seems to think they owe their fans a Christmas album. Even Bad Religion (religion bad, Christmas good? How does that figure?) Brian Setzer, though, has taken it to another level. Since he left The Stray Cats behind, he's been on a mission to resurrect the golden age of big bands, swing, and rockabilly. Who better, then, than him to play those old chestnuts familiar from Elvis and the Rat Pack? He channels the spirit of the King with aplomb on “Blue Christmas” and “Santa Claus Is Back in Town”, embellishing them with his own trademark reverb-drenched guitar solos, while Elvis' erstwhile costar Ann-Margret adds authenticity by providing playful guest vocals on "Baby, It's Cold Outside". Previously, side one has opened with probably the most cliché Christmas tune, "Jingle Bells". Setzer manages to make it sound interesting by giving it a rockabilly twist ("Oh what fun it is to ride in a '57 Chevrolet"), while "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus" is pure R&B, Winter Wonderland" is jazzy and "The Nutcracker Suite" is an ambitious swing/classical crossover - he'd return to this idea on 2007's Wolfgang's Big Night Out. Side two keeps up with impeccably played and tightly arranged big band versions of yuletide classics "(Everybody's Waitin' for) The Man with the Bag" and "Sleigh Ride", a Stray Cats-style rocking "Run Rudolph Run", country-ish "Cactus Christmas" (is it an original? I wasn't previously familiar with it), and ballad "So They Say It's Christmas". The album closes with two earnestly spiritual songs "O Holy Night" and "The Amens", utilizing a very churchy choir. All in all, Setzer manages to retain everything we all love about those old seasonal favorites, while making subtle changes that breath new life to them. His ebullience is infectious, and the album makes for a delightfully fun listening experience that is sure to put you in celebratory mood for the holidays. The album was originally released on CD only, but for the vinyl lovers there's a beautiful reissue from 2019 in Christmas tree-green-colored vinyl and gatefold cover. Of course I bought it, and every December it makes repeated trips to my turntable. Three more Christmas-themed albums followed: Dig That Crazy Christmas (2005), Rockin' Rudolph (2015), and the live Christmas Comes Alive (2010), plus a compilation and a couple of live DVDs: Brian Setzer Orchestra Live: Christmas Extravaganza (2005) and Christmas Rocks! (2018). I haven't heard/seen them all, but everything I've heard seems to be in the same spirit. All guaranteed fun, but there's no beating the original, so this is the one to start your Brian Setzer Christmas collection with!

**** for Jingle Bells, Boogie Woogie Santa Claus, Santa Claus Is Back in Town, Run Rudolph Run

*** for Winter Wonderland, Blue Christmas, Baby, It's Cold Outside, The Nutcracker Suite, (Everybody's Waitin' for) The Man with the Bag, Sleigh Ride, Cactus Christmas, So They Say It's Christmas

** for O Holy Night, The Amens

The Siegel-Schwall Band "Three Pieces For Blues Band And Orchestra/ Street Music (Russo)" 1972-1977(Rec) 1977 (comp)***

OK, I found this LP at the bargain bin of my neighborhood record store and it caught my attention; I don't believe I had ever heard of a blues/classical fusion work before. Rock yes, but blues not. And Siegel-Schwall sounded like a random choice for such a work - not highbrow enough, somehow. I got it, then tried to find out more about how it came to be. Apparently, Japanese orchestra maestro Seiji Ozawa actually got the idea of a blues/classical fusion work after seeing Siegel–Schwall Band perform live at a Chicago blues club - so, the band choice was anything but random. He pitched the idea to composer William Russo, who wrote the symphonic parts to Three Pieces for Blues Band and Symphony Orchestra as well as broad outlines for the blues parts, to be filled by the band themselves. The work debuted in 1968; at the time, it was an unprecedented combination - the only similarly bold experiment in roughly the same period that I can think of was The Moody Blues' Days Of Future Past (1967). By the advent of prog rock in the early 70's, the combination sounded interesting rather than outlandish, so Siegel-Schwall went into studio to record the piece with the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Ozawa himself. Side two featured a different work, Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. The album opens with a minute-long atmospheric intro followed by a blues boogie with beautiful electric guitar; here the orchestra nicely compliments the blues band, which seems to have the upper hand. On "2nd Part", it's the orchestra that dominates. Guitar and piano enter after 3 minutes, and harmonica after 6:30. The playing of the blues band on "3rd Part" is excellent, but for me the piece is somewhat marred by the orchestra occasionally being too loud. While this is quite normal in a symphonic setting, it sounded too bombastic and out of place to my ears compared to the gentleness of the blues band. It makes for an interesting comparison with another, more successful fusion work: more than 20 years later, the same San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Michael Kamen this time, would play a concert with Metallica immortalized in the Metallica S&M DVD and CD. Here the orchestra would never overpower the band, sparring with the powerful metal rockers during the louder parts, and adding drama and nuance to the (relatively) quieter ones. The original LP issue was released by classical music label Deutsche Grammophon, and sold quite well, reaching number 21 on the Billboard Jazz Chart and number 105 on the Billboard Top 200. My 1977 reissue on Polydor is quite different, as side 2 features another Russo composition called Street Music: A Blues Concerto. Taken from a different Deutsche Grammophon LP, this piece was also recorded by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Seiji Ozawa. Since Siegel-Schwall had disbanded, it only features Corky Siegel on harmonica and piano. It consists of 4 movements: the first one opens with a mourning harmonica whose sound blends well with the strings; after 3 minutes the symphonic parts takes completely over. To me it sounded like the music of a movie or ballet, going through various moods that seemed to comment on something invisible happening onstage. The "2nd Movement" consists of alternating passages of boogie woogie piano and classical, never really integrating. The combination works better on "3rd Movement", while "4th Movement" starts with an upbeat harmonica intro, followed by classical segment, then a segment with nice harmonica/orchestra interplay, and ends with a bombastic symphonic coda. As a whole, I find "Street Music" rather less engaging, as I missed the blues guitar, but Corky Siegel's performance on harmonica is insanely good. He convinced me for the first time that this "humble" yet versatile and very expressive instrument actually has a place in classical music, which I never would have thought before. To summarize, I thought the blues playing by the band is particularly strong, while the symphonic part sounds great when it blends well with the blues. When it takes over, it sounds just like a random classical piece - or, to be more accurate, like soundtrack music. In any case, an interesting experiment which may sound pompous as an idea but it certainly has its moments.

Three Pieces For Blues Band And Orchestra: 1st Part****,  2nd Part***, 3rd Part*** 

Street Music: A Blues Concerto 1st Movement***, 2nd Movement**,  3rd Movement***, 4th Movement***

The liner notes, translated from German

Mops "Rock 'N' Roll '70" 1970 ***

For the first time, I'm presenting a record that's not part of my record collection. Not on purpose; I bought GS Original Stock 5 by The Mops during my recent visit to Japan, mistaking it for their sophomore effort, Rock'n'Roll 70. I then downloaded the album I thought I had bought on MP3 and listened to it while driving to work, proceeding to write my review based on what I heard. Then, when I played the actual vinyl at home, I realized my mistake: even though both albums use the same cover photo, one of them is really a compilation. The Japanese song titles on the back cover were no help to me; do you think I can tell whether this "朝まで待てない" or this "朝日のあたる家" means "House Of The Rising Sun"? Anyway, since I took the time to write the review already, I thought I'd post it here anyway. And, for your information, I'm not the only one who made this mistake; rateyourmusic also lists GS Original Stock 5 as a  different issue of the original Rock'n'Roll 70 LP rather than as a completely other album. 

On the left, a photo of the LP I bought in Japan. On the right, the one this review is about:

The Mops are considered to be Japan's first psychedelic rock band; their debut Psychedelic Sounds in Japan (1968) featured fuzz-laden covers of Jefferson Airplane, Doors, and Animals songs. It was pretty good, but seemed to be a bit too eager to jump on the flower-power bandwagon. Their third one Iijanaika (1971), which I've already reviewed here, presented a heavier, less commercial, aspect of the band. Rock 'N' Roll '70, recorded between those two, is mostly ignored; like their debut it features mostly covers, but unlike it, it fails to capture the zeitgeist. If anything, it's divided between nostalgia for the classic blues and rock'n'roll of the 50's and early 60's and their future progressive heavy sound. "Rock'n'Roll" (which singer Hiromitsu Suzuki pronounces "Lock en Lol😂") is a wild rockabilly incorporating Little Richards' "Good Golly Miss Molly" and sounds like a precursor to the same-named Led Zeppelin track. "Jenny Jenny '70" is a more straight Little Richard cover. "Ain't That Just Like Me" is a fun little rock'n'roll ditty (previously covered by The Coasters, Searchers, Hollies etc) and "I'm A Man" is a Spencer Davis Group song; both are tough, well-played, versions but too short and missing any distinctive characteristics. I find myself wishing they had elongated them or added some nice solos, 1970 wasn't the 3-minute radio era when these songs first appeared. Hiromitsu was a big Eric Burdon fan, so he covers two Animals songs here: wild R&B "Club A Go Go" and their classic "House of The 'Lising' Sun". The latter features an interesting bridge utilizing a string section (or, more likely, mellotron) and a (possibly traditional Japanese) reed instrument. The other ballad here is a rather lackluster version of The Beatles' "Elenore Rigby". "My Babe" sounds like a blues cover, but I'm not sure (it's not the familiar Little Walter tune of the same name). The rest sound like band originals, and are of arguably more interest. The album opens with Hendrix-like psychedelia of "Participation" - one of the record's highlights, along with "Kyoko", a Groundhogs-like prog-blues hard rocker. "Get Got Gotten" treads similar ground while "Body And Soul" is a hard rock-garage-soul hybrid similar to modern groups like The Gories and Bellrays. In the end, despite the fact that they choose to sing in English and that this LP is obviously intended as a tribute to their early British/American R&B/Rock&Roll influences, there's something very Japanese about it; I don't just mean the singer's accent, but also the fact that all these influences seem to be processed with an alien sensibility - of someone who was steeped in Western culture but not necessarily of it. As it turns out, the album is quite rare, especially on vinyl. So, if you can find a copy (even CDs are rare) I say get it, it's worth adding to your collection. Just make sure it's the one on the right.

**** for Participation, Rock 'N' Roll, House Of The Rising Sun, Kyoko, Body And Soul

*** for My Babe, I'm A Man, Jenny Jenny '70, Eleanor Rigby, Get Got Gotten, Ain't That Just Like Me, Club-A-Go-Go