The Mad Hat Hucksters • Holly Jolly Christmas

The Mad Hat Hucksters have always been a band that treats swing as a living vernacular rather than a museum dialect, which is why holiday releases fit them so well. Anyone who has followed their evolution through 2017’s Swing and Jazz Music for Dancing, the sturdy live set Live at the Firehouse, the Halloween project Night of the Lindy Dead, and their latest studio album What’s the Matter with the Mill? already knows the formula: tight ensemble rhythm, strong tempos tailored for actual dancers, and a sense of communal lift that never drifts into showing off. They’ve built their reputation by making rooms move, and this holiday EP carries that same ethos into December.

The title song, “Holly Jolly Christmas,” leads the album with a banjo-like guitar strum that immediately sets the mood. Even though the performance was recorded at a Christmas party, there’s no crowd noise, just that trademark Hucksters “live feel” that even follows them into the studio. the sense that each version will exist only once and the next will swing slightly differently. The jazz spirit lives in those little variations, and this track makes it clear from the jump. From there the EP slips into “The Christmas Blues,” a song most people know from Dean Martin’s 1953 release but one that’s had more lives than you might expect, right up through Bob Dylan in 2009. The Hucksters’ take is more lively than either, horns forward, and somehow that brightness brings out the lyric’s loneliness even better. When Reed sings lines like “I’ve done my window shopping/There’s not a store I’ve missed/But what’s the use of stopping/When there’s no one on your list,” the arrangement gives them a nudge that makes the sentiment hit harder, not softer.

“Mele Kalikimaka” is a perennial favorite, and it has more jazz history than casual listeners assume. The Hucksters use the tune as a chance to stretch out a little, leaning into the rhythmic bounce as the band hits its cruising speed. Their version races forward with a confident swagger that feels earned. “Let It Snow” keeps the good times rolling, solos moving fluidly around the room, the band reminding you exactly why this particular standard is such a favorite to play in December; it’s the perfect vehicle for mid-tempo joy. And finally, there is “Auld Lang Syne.” I have several copies of on 78 rpm record, and one I very much like for the big moment, but somehow come midnight I am always scrambling to find it. If that is my predicament this year, I will pop on the Mad Hat Hucksters appropriate album closer. Led by sax, it’s groovy rather than melancholic, closer to a pub sing-along than my sentimental parlor renditions.

The whole set runs a little over twenty-two minutes, which places it on the longer end for an EP, and for five dollars on Bandcamp it’s a steal. When every commercial station is trapped in its annual Mariah Carey loop, it’s worth building your own reserve of Christmas jazz that doesn’t smother you. This isn’t the kind of collection that gets passed down as a family heirloom, but it’s exactly the sort of thing that brings a little swing to your gatherings. For a buck more you can add “Pandemic Christmas,” their 2020 single, an artifact of its moment that sounds dated now but might make a great novelty fifty years down the line.

The EP’s pacing feels larger than the track list because of how the Hucksters approach rhythm. They’re one of the few bands that openly list BPMs for each tune on Bandcamp, which says a great deal about their identity. They are a dancers’ band, and they record like one. Their holiday melodies aren’t decorated or disguised—they sit naturally on top of the band’s existing vocabulary. This set is focused and confident, comfortably locked into its tempo and mood. The interplay between saxes, guitar, and rhythm section has the easy precision that comes from experience rather than editing.

Holly Jolly Christmas isn’t a record for contemplative Christmas Eve moments or soft-lit nostalgia. It’s for gatherings, for the moments when conversation and rhythm meet. The Hucksters don’t pretend this is anything other than a good swing band giving the season a shove toward cheer, and that clarity is exactly what makes it work.

Holly Jolly Christmas
The Mad Hat Hucksters
themadhathucksters.bandcamp.com