Review and More

Our Review

Oooooooh, baby! What a smokin' cool set of high-wire jazz selections for the holiday season! I was dancing on the ceiling after the first few bars. Outstanding!

Joe Hurt is the Magic Man at the piano, and his Wish You a Merry Christmas is one of the best holiday albums I've heard. Seriously. Take a close look at the cover--Hurt looks like a pleasant ad executive, not a hard-core jazz maestro. Yet, there he is, making the keyboards howl like an age-old veteran, and Hurt is still in his twenties. He's a very young guy with a grizzled jazz soul. Magnificent. Just listen to him rip up the ivories for over seven minutes on Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!. Genius!

Hurt makes a lot of great choices here. First, he covers only nine tracks in 44 minutes; this means that each track has the time to develop its story over several minutes. That process gives each musician the opportunity to shine, and Hurt has some superb musicians here--playing the drums (Redd Holt, Larry Beers), bass (Alan Berlient), upright bass (Steve Hart), trumpet (Merril Coates), and tenor sax (Steve Eisen), and providing the vocals (Lisa McClowry). I love the trumpet, having played in swing orchestras many moons ago, and I tip my hat to the incredible Merril Coates. His dynamite wah-wah trumpet absolutely steals the show as the offering opens with O Tannenbaum. Outrageously good! Steve Eisen's killer sax on Jingle Bell Rock is another easy standout.

Vocalist Lisa McClowry is exceptional, singing three terrific tracks here and never letting herself be overshadowed by her formidable instrumental accompaniment. Although I generally hate Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, I am willing to do an about-face for McClowry's version here. And her interpretation of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is achingly beautiful and intensely melancholy. Her husky intonations are sexy, sassy, and sophisticated.

By the way, intimate albums like this one scream out for exceptional technical values, and Wish You a Merry Christmas's recording quality is flawless. Joe Hurt & Friends are in your living room, and the acoustic balance between voice and accompaniment, and among the instruments, is first-rate.

I give Joe Hurt & Friends Wish You a Merry Christmas my highest recommendation.

--Carol Swanson
(Reviewed in 2009)

More

From the liner notes:

Joe Hurt: Piano, B3 Organ
Larry Beers: Drums
Alan Berlient: Bass
Redd Holt: Drums
Steve Hart: Upright Bass
Lisa McClowry: Vocals
Merril Coates: Trumpet
Steve Eisen: Tenor Sax

Produced and arranged by Joe Hurt

From the artist's Website:

When it comes to Joe Hurt, the old adage needs to be rethought-Believe none of what you see and all of what you hear. To be fair, Joe looks like a young buisiness exec, and decidedly not like a seasoned jazz piano player, which he decidedly is. Joe's in his twenties now, one can only imagine the shock that folks felt when an 15-year old Joe sat down at the keys and laid down the blues like a grizzled old vet. The Chicago piano legend Skip Green took notice, and became a mentor to the fledgling virtuoso. By the time Joe turned nineteen, he had released his first traditional Jazz CD, and begun composing jingles for national Radio and TV spots.

Joe & Friends Hurt

... Wish You a Merry Christmas

Artist link

Track List