Christmas Holiday Yule

"If you tend to be depressed it gets especially bad during the holidays," the famously depressed Harvey Pekar writes in his liner notes to Verve's Yule Be Miserable. "Everybody's prancing around the Christmas tree…while you lie in bed with a big headache…

The title of Anna Wilson's third album, Yule Swing!, gives an accurate indication of its contents, which consist of seasonal music in big-band (and small-band) jazz arrangements. But without the subtitle that's written vertically in script up the right side of the cover, one might expect to hear the usual perennials. That subtitle reads, "A Collection of Original Holiday Songs."

A mighty fresh Christmas album from pianist George Burton - one that goes way past familiar territory, with an unusual mix of tunes next to familiar Holiday favorites - and served up with a mix of sounds and styles that really sets things apart from the pack! George plays acoustic piano, but this isn't just another piano trio Holiday outing - as the set also features Burton on some harmonium, and a small string grouping in the lineup, next to the bass and drums in the group - plus inventive arrangements, and vocals on nearly every tune - sung on most by Nancy Harms, and by Aryssa Leigh Burrs on one more.