Shellac instead of stardust: when Santa Claus takes off his boots and unpacks the gramophone after his work is done: Bear Family Records® delves deep into the shellac box! No intrusive bells, chumming ho-hos or strangely distorted reindeer voices: Every year around the same time the displays of the department stores are bending with hastily and often suspiciously similar compiled swing samplers, since ”swing is coming back.” Our journey through the depths of various shellac racks, however, brought to light quite a number of undiscovered treasures. Thus we could stand up for the true Spirit of Swing. Thrilling music of the 30s and 40s, highly danceable, elegant but cool, performed by expert jazz musicians, at the time pressed onto a mélange of shellac, slate flour, soot and cotton flakes, to be played with a steel needle (or optionally cactus spikes for lower volume) at an unbelievable 78 RPM and …. extremely fragile. Windup, by the way, refers to the suitable playback device with a crank; from todays point of view, very sustainable and environmentally friendly! Big names like Glenn Miller – with a very special Jingle Bells version, recorded live on Dec 24, 1941!!! – Paul Whiteman, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Barnet, Count Basie or Ella Fitzgerald as well as Putney Dandridge have expressed themselves in their own way on the subject of Christmas. 1. Louis Prima and His New Orleans Gang – What Will Santa Say 2. Bob Crosby and His Bob Cats (Vocal: Marion Mann) – Blow Blo 3. The Ramblers Orchestra (Vocal:Marcel Thielemans) – Let It S 4. Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra – I Hope Gabriel Likes My 5. Count Basie and His Orchestra (Vocal: Helen Humes) – and the 6. Monette Moore and the Ebonaires Orchestra Acc. By Phil Moore 7. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, Intro Spoken and Sung By Gle 8. Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra – Ring Dem Bells 9. Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra (Vocals: Jack Teagarden and 10. Johnny Guarnieri With Slam Stewart – Santas Secret 11. Chick Webb and His Orchestra (Vocal: Ella Fitzgerald) – the 12. Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra – Snow Ball 13. Putney Dandridge and His Orchestra – Santa Claus Came In Th 14. Joel Cowan and Thornel Swartz – Bells of Auld Lang Syne
