CHARLES BROWN COOL CHRISTMAS BLUES
Original Year 1994
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COOL CHRISTMAS BLUES was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.

This 1994 set was recorded and released in the midst of a resurgence in popularity for Charles Brown during the early '90s. It's also the singer's second Christmas collection, joining the much heralded Please Come Home For Christmas. Throughout, Brown is in fine voice, as he is accompanied by a quartet of tenor saxophone, guitar, bass, and drums. As is usually the case, Brown's piano playing is both strongly supportive and marked by engaging solos. The warm set includes both original and traditional Christmas songs, tracks that Brown handles in a voice that's as smooth as eggnog. He seems to effortlessly wrap himself into and around each song with well-honed pipes that have seen more than 50 years of work.

Charles Brown (September 13, 1922 – January 21, 1999), born in Texas City, Texas American blues singer and pianist whose soft-toned, slow-paced blues-club style influenced the development of blues performance during the 1940s and 1950s. He had several hit recordings, including "Driftin' Blues" and "Merry Christmas Baby”
In the late 1940s a rising demand for blues was driven by an increasing white teenage audience in the South which quickly spread north and west. Blues shouters got the attention, but also greatly influential was what writer Charles Keil dubbs "the postwar Texas clean-up movement in blues" led by stylists such as T-Bone Walker, Amos Milburn and Charles Brown. Their singing was lighter, more relaxed and they worked with bands and combos that had saxophone sections and used arrangements.

Recorded at Russian Hill Recording, San Francisco, California.

[color=orange][b]Tracklist[/b]
1.Merry Christmas, Baby (04:49)
2.Santa's Blues (03:26)
3.Blue Holiday (04:36)
4.Silent Night (04:56)
5.Christmas Comes But Once a Year (04:20)
6.Please Come Home for Christmas (03:19)
7.A Song for Christmas (06:20)
8.Stay With Me (04:47)
9.To Someone That I Love (04:51)
10.Christmas in Heaven (04:00)
11.Bringing in a Brand New Year (05:31)


Personnel:
Charles Brown (vocals, cello, piano); 
Danny Caron (guitar); 
Clifford Solomon, Bobby Forte (tenor saxophone);
Johnny Otis (vibraphone); 
Gaylord Birch (drums).