[The EP referenced in the below review is now sold as a full 11 track album called Winter’s Day.]
Gunhild Carling is a bit of a marvel. She is equally skilled as a hot jazz trumpeter and trombonist, can sing in several styles (ranging from Billie Holiday to Cab Calloway), dances a bit, plays a variety of other instruments (including harp, harmonica, recorder, banjo, and even bagpipes), and is a talented arranger-composer. In addition, she puts on great shows that often find her doing the impossible such as playing a chorus on four trumpets and somehow playing banjo and trumpet at the same time.
On her self-produced Happy Christmas, which can be thought of an EP since it is only around a half-hour long, Gunhild Carling primarily sings in addition to contributing concise trumpet and trombone solos. She is assisted by her California Band (a sextet) and her family band which consists of five other Carlings plus a bassist. Some numbers also add an unidentified orchestra.
While there are short spots for some of her sidemen (Neil Fontano contributes some excellent stride piano), Ms. Carling is primarily the whole show. She performs seven Xmas-related standards (including the 1953 Gayla Peevey novelty “I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas”), sings a song in Swedish, and debuts her original “Winter’s Day.” She sings on all but “Silent Night” (sounding best on “Winter’s Day”) and takes a few hot trumpet and trombone solos although I wish that her instrumental playing (which just hints at what she can do) was much more extensive. Her high notes on trombone during the closing melody statement of “When You Wish Upon A Star” is a highlight.
Although not one of her more essential releases, Happy Christmas contains a few worthy moments and plenty of good feelings.
Winter’s Day
Gunhild Carling
Self-Produced
www.gunhildcarling.net
Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings.
Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.
