Roomful of Blues

ROOMFUL OF CHRISTMAS

(Bullseye Blues)

If your white Christmas isn't perfect without screaming blues guitar and smooth hipster crooning, this 10-song CD from Rhode Island's famed little big band is your ticket to a très cool Yule. Except for "Good Morning Blues," "I Told Santa Claus," and a few others (penned by the likes of Lowell Fulson and Fats Domino), these are the standard standards. Which is good. I want to hear "White Christmas," "Let It Snow," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and "Run Rudolph Run" every December. Often. And Sugar Ray Norcia makes all these performances a pleasure. He vocalizes with such zesty élan that his take on "The Christmas Song" actually holds up against Nat King Cole's definitive performance. The horns and the rhythm section swing. The arrangements are perfect. Leave this one on "repeat," settle in with your baby, and heat up the rum toddies.

-- Ted Drozdowski

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