Having nine players instead of her usual smaller lineup gives Chelsea Reed’s The Christmas EP a warmth and fullness that feels exactly right for the season. A total of ten people in the studio isn’t a crowd, it conjures that timeless “floor show” feeling of classic holiday television or radio specials. It’s swing music dressed up for Christmas without losing its street clothes.
“Let It Snow” opens the EP with an arrangement so period-true it sets your internal clock before Reed even appears. The horns rise together like a 1940s stage curtain, giving you that instant sense of place, a winter atmosphere delivered through voicings rather than sleigh bells. Reed slides in with the kind of phrasing that makes her feel native to the era. “Jingle Bells” comes next, kicking in with a sly, scat-like intro that feels like it may be a tribute to a specific broadcast recording before veering into its own playful shape. The band shifts its accents just enough to make the old melody dance differently, freshening a tune nearly impossible to surprise anyone with.
The arrangements throughout come from Jack Saint Clair, who also leads his own 17-piece orchestra in Philadelphia, and you can hear that big-band mind at work in how these smaller-group charts breathe and punch. A classy live performance of several of these numbers can be found on YouTube. In that jazz café setting the band gets a few extra minutes to rip and Reed shows the stage presence and leadership that don’t always fit inside a tight studio take. At just over fifteen minutes, the EP plays like a holiday-themed encore, and it leaves you certain you’ve heard something worth returning to.
The real surprise comes in “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” It’s unusually slow, not just for this lively band, but even compared to other jazz singers who’ve tackled it, and the tempo gives Reed room to show her control. For a few minutes the band steps back and lets her shape every line with unhurried phrasing. Then the energy snaps back as she leads “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” with bright authority, the rhythm section pushing the beat in that dancer-first way that defines this group’s aesthetic. “Go Tell It on the Mountain” closes the set on a note that’s more spiritual than swing, evoking a New Orleans second-line or a folk-gospel celebration. There’s something of Anne Phillips’s Jazz Nativity program in its message, the good news is jazz itself. A reviewer said she sounds a little like Joni Mitchell, who had her own jazz phase; that isn’t who came to mind for me but there is something of classic folk gospel here.
Reed, who teaches jazz history and performance at Temple University, approaches the material with a scholar’s awareness and a performer’s joy. Her singing is classic without mimicry; she owns the vocabulary she teaches, and embodies the role of a female lead. The Fair Weather Band—Jack Saint Clair on tenor saxophone, Marcell Bellinger on trumpet, St. Clair Simmons III on trombone, Chris Oatts on alto, Josh Lee on baritone, Silas Irvine on piano, Jake Kelberman on guitar, Joe Plowman on bass, and Austin Wagner on drums—plays with precision and heart. The musicians’ interplay has the looseness that only comes from years of playing together in real rooms for real dancers. I’m sure if I delved into each name, I could find other work as interesting as Jack Saint Clair’s resume. It is hard to keep up with players outside of the jazz hotbeds, though Philly is hardly a small pond.
For listeners who measure value by depth rather than length, this fifteen-minute collection is a gem. The mood lands somewhere between celebration and gratitude, a very Christmas vibe. On Bandcamp, Reed’s entire discography: two full-length albums, this EP, and a handful of singles, can be downloaded for only $11.40, but I would encourage a generous tip as that number is a calculation issue on Bandcamp’s end. Pne of her albums was Pay What You Want, and so is calculated as free.. The Christmas EP may be brief, but it captures the essence of what makes her band matter. Chelsea Reed makes music made for motion, played with love, and recorded with no hint of artifice. It’s proof that the swing tradition can still put tinsel on its horn and bring the spirit.
The Christmas EP
Chelsea Reed and the Fairweather Nine
chelseareedandthefairweatherband.bandcamp.com
Joe Bebco is the Associate Editor of The Syncopated Times and Webmaster of SyncopatedTimes.com
