Don’t look now, but December is upon us — so if you’ve been fending off the holiday vibes, now’s the time to give in. We’ll be encountering a lot of swinging Christmas music in the weeks ahead, even as we look back on the year’s sounds. Here are some prime holiday picks in the coming week.
Spotlight: Bria Skonberg: Jingle Bell Swing
Bria Skonberg has spent the last 15 years or so triangulating a modern musical career with an antiquarian’s musical taste: she’s a trumpet player drawn to the exuberant 1930s style of Louis Armstrong and Hot Lips Page. As a vocalist, she favors a smoother sensibility, mellifluous and warmly confiding. All of which has conspired to elevate Skonberg as a prime exponent of millennial hot jazz, which accurately describes most but not all of her musical scope.
Her engaging new album, What It Means, sets out to clarify matters a bit — with, for instance, a cover of Sonny & Cher’s “The Beat Goes On” that reimagines said beat as the one from Lee Morgan’s “The Sidewinder.” Skonberg also offers a stirring cover of John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy),” sequencing the ballad right after an exuberant second-line take on Armstrong’s “Cornet Chop Suey.”
What does this all have to do with Jingle Bell Swing, the concert program that Skonberg brings to Penn Live Arts next Sunday? Well, we said at the outset that she naturally bridges the classic and the contemporary, which is a great skill set for a Christmas show. If you need proof of concept, look no further than her airy, swinging arrangement of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas is You.”
Dec. 8 at 7 p.m., Zellerbach Theater, Annenberg Center, 3680 Walnut Street, $79, or $59.25 with a Black Friday discount; tickets and information.
Rob Edwards Group — Thursday, Temple Performing Arts Center
A trombonist with a sterling track record on the modern big band circuit — he’s a member of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and plays lead in bands led by Steven Feifke, Eyal Vilner and others — Rob Edwards leads a combo in this edition of the Rite of Swing Jazz Cafe. His band mates include saxophonist Dick Oatts and pianist Adam Birnbaum, both VJO veterans, along with bassist Mike Karn and drummer Aaron Kimmel.
Dec. 5 at 4:30 p.m., Temple Performing Arts Center, 1837 N. Broad Street, free; more information.
Chelsea Reed and the Fairweather Nine — Friday, Temple Performing Arts Center
A clever, vivacious jazz singer with an instinct for warm inclusion, Chelsea Reed has been holding it down for the swinging vocal tradition over the better part of a decade. Here as on The Christmas EP, which she released last year, she leads an exuberant troupe she calls the Fair Weather Nine, putting a toe-tapping spin on fare like “Jingle Bells” and “Let It Snow.”
Dec. 6 at 4:30 p.m., Temple Performing Arts Center, 1837 N. Broad Street, free; more information.
Kate Kortum & the Juilliard All-Stars — Saturday, Chris’ Jazz Cafe
A high-spirited jazz singer originally from Houston, TX, Kate Kortum is in her early 20s and currently pursuing her masters degree at Juilliard, whose Betty Carter Ensemble features her prominently. You can hear what she’s all about on her recent debut album, Good Woman — or you can see for yourself when she sets up here, in the company of her peers.
Dec. 7 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Chris’ Jazz Cafe, 1421 Sansom Street, $30, $100 and $120, with dinner packages; purchase tickets.
