Music is an integral part of any Christmas celebration and over the years, jazz musicians and popular songwriters have contributed their art to celebrate the season. The repertoire includes traditional carols done up in jazz style as well as Great American Songbook tunes written especially for the season of light. At St. Michael’s by-the-Sea on December 14th, our Jazz Family Christmas event includes a special performance of the Jazz Evensong Quintet with the string orchestra of the Renaissance Institute of Music.

Pianist McCoy Tyner ( born December 11, 1938) is perhaps best remembered for his association as the youngest member of the John Coltrane Quartet, but his long career as a band leader in his own right eclipses even that of his association with the legendary saxophonist. He was an NEA Jazz Master and five-time Grammy winner and recorded over eight albums as a leader, and many more as a sideman. He was one of the most influential jazz pianists of all time, and his many compositions have been recorded by numerous other artists.

Pianist Dave Brubeck (born December 6, 1920) and saxophonist Paul Desmond (born November 25, 1924), along with bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello, formed one of the most popular jazz quartets ever assembled. They were responsible for over 60 albums, and Desmond’s composition “Take Five” became the biggest selling jazz single of all time and an unlikely hit on pop charts as well. The group became well known for its innovative, complex compositions and use of unusual time signatures. 

While often overshadowed by his association with his longtime employer and collaborator Duke Ellington, composer/arranger and pianist Billy Strayhorn (born November 29, 1915) was no less a genius in his own right. In a life cut short by cancer at the age of 51, he produced a huge catalog of original music, all of it bearing his unique harmonic and melodic stamp. In his autobiography and in a spoken word passage in his Second Sacred Concert, Ellington listed what he considered Strayhorn's "four major moral freedoms": freedom from hate, unconditionally, freedom from self-pity (even through all the pain and bad news), freedom from fear of possibly doing something that might possibly help another more than it might himself, and freedom from the kind of pride that might make a man think that he was better than his brother or his neighbor.

Jazz pianist Fred Hersch wrote of Strayhorn: "He was a quadruple threat: a great composer of jazz tunes, a first-rate jazz pianist, a remarkable songwriter (music and lyrics), and one of the all-time great arrangers for jazz orchestra."

Songwriter Hoagy Carmichael (born November 22, 1899) is one of the best-loved and most prolific of the Great American Songbook composers. He is responsible for several hundred songs, including fifty that achieved hit record status. His timeless compositions, Stardust, Georgia on my Mind, Skylark, I Get Along Without You Very Well, The Nearness of You, How Little We Know and many others still inspire musicians and singers to this day.

Saxophonist Phil Woods (born November 2, 1931) was much more than just another alto saxophonist who followed in the footsteps of the great Charlie Parker. Throughout his career, he carved his own path, continuing to develop his own voice on the instrument, as well as his voice as a prolific composer. He delved into the avant-guarde with his group 'The European Rhythm Machine' for several years when he chose to become an expatriate. But shortly after his return to the United States in 1972, he formed the straight ahead group he was to lead until shortly before his death ten years ago. Through multiple changes in personnel, his bassist, Steve Gilmore and his drummer, Bill Goodwin stayed with him the entire time. 

Before his life was tragically ended by an automobile accident at the age of 25, trumpeter Clifford Brown (born October 30, 1930) set the jazz world ablaze with his seemingly effortless mastery of his instrument and incendiary playing. His trailblazing quintet with drummer Max Roach and saxophonists Sonny Rollins, and later, Harold Land, set the standard for the post bop era, and many of the compositions he penned for this band remain jazz standards.

Pianist / composer Thelonius Sphere Monk (born October 10, 1917), often referred to as the 'High Priest of Bebop', was one of the founders of the musical movement, alongside Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem. His idiosyncratic piano style and compositions are so distinctive as to be immediately identifiable as completely his own. His total originality is undeniable, there is only one Monk!

Pianist/composer Bill Evans (born August 16, 1929) remains one of the most influential jazz pianists to this day, some 45 years after his death. His introspective, impressionistic use of harmony, and his unique touch and piano sound have shaped the concept of all players who have come after him. He produced an enormous body of work: over 50 albums as a leader and nearly as many more as a sideman, and he was nominated for 31 Grammys.