25 Days of Christmas Albums: Have Yourself a Soulful Little Christmas ✧ Kenny Burrell ✧ 1968

You’ve never heard a “The Little Drummer Boy” quite like this. While Kenny Burrell, like Fahey, is a guitarist, the feel is completely different. “The Little Drummer Boy” starts unassumingly enough, but begins climbing to an eventual eruption of horns in the last 40 seconds of the track. I would love to see a version of A Charlie Brown Christmas that subs out Vince Guaraldi’s score. Not to say that Guaraldi’s work is anything but lovely--if anything, the two 60’s jazz holiday scores are different sides of the same coin. They both manage to express the joy, serenity, and yes, melancholy I equate with the holiday season.

The distinctive cover art is by Tom Gorman, who had a couple dozen album covers to his name in the early-to-mid 60’s for Ramsey Lewis, Illinois Jacquet, and Lou Donaldson. The digital transfer on Spotify is not particularly good, but I promise Burrell’s work makes up for it.

Purchased at Savers in Orem, UT