If you’re looking for some seasonal background music that’s actually worth listening to, this should do nicely. Barbara Dennerlein is a jazz organist with an approach based on the groovy style of the 60s masters but enlivened by some radical ideas of her own. Here, she recasts We Three Kings as a modal piece against a boiling 6/8 rhythm, turns Silent Night into a soul ballad, and comes up with a very laid-back Sleigh Ride. The rhythm section is superb, and there’s some good tenor saxophone and clarinet from Magnus Lindgren. With so many electronic imitations around it’s great, too, to hear the inimitable tones of the genuine article, a monster B3 Hammond organ.
