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Our Review

Mama, I wanted to pick up my feet and dance! Can you dance to jazz music? Sure you can: this is swing music.

The Bob Curtis Trio's lively Christmas set is among the more intriguing CDs I've slapped in the changer this season. This is the Bob Curtis who played swing in the Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw bands, who played for Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland, who was bandleader for years for Steve Allen's tv show. But the guy's not playing his resume here. He's playing a piano that's sweeter than honey. I know it is a cliche, but the phrase "tickling the ivories" popped into my head as I was listening to this record.

There are a lot of highlights on this CD, but my favorite one was One for the Itty Bitty Baby, an old spiritual that just rocks in Curtis's hands. It always amazes me how some musicians can get in a groove, and when they do, you can hear something from another world. That's the feeling I got with Christmas Straight Up. It's not so much that every song is polished, although all are. It isn't so much that the trio picked a good set of music to play, though they did. It isn't even the fine musicianship, which is unmatched. It is that groove. They were in it, and it really sells this CD.

Every song has its place on this record. It is complete and well-crafted. Action-packed throughout, the trio slowed things down near the end with Once Upon a Christmas Eve, and the change of pace brought down the house.

This is a merry little toe-tapper, and one of my favorite records this year.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2000)

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Bob Curtis Trio

Christmas Straight Up

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Track List