When most holiday concerts treat jazz as ambient decoration — a trio running through carols at medium volume, music designed to not get in the way — It’s a Jazzy Christmas takes the opposite position. This is an evening built around real improvisation: full solo choruses, a trumpet reworking of “We Three Kings” that draws from Coltrane, and Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts themes played by seven musicians who understand what made those pieces worth keeping.
About the Show
Led by pianist David Gleason, who studied jazz at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, later earned an M.A. in ethnomusicology from Tufts, and has taught at SUNY Schenectady and RPI, the annual production stages its music as a 1940s radio broadcast, complete with comedic interludes and mock commercials. The septet includes the Art D’Echo Trio at its core: Gleason, bassist Mike Lawrence (performing with Gleason since both were teenagers), and drummer Pete Sweeney, joined by vocalist Hannah Amigo, announcer Mike McCord, Brian Patneaude on tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, Chris Pasin on trumpet, and Ben O’Shea on trombone. Michael Hochanadel of The Daily Gazette praised the trio for “pure sound, crisply cohesive through mutually supportive hyperlistening” — and that quality of listening is exactly what this repertoire demands, because the band genuinely stretches out. “It’s actual jazz,” Gleason has said, “with plenty of room to stretch out. We have full choruses of improvised solos, and each of the horn players has a feature.” The programming makes good on that claim: a mambo arrangement of “Jingle Bells,” “The Grinch” theme reconceived as a low brass rumble, and a Coltrane-influenced “We Three Kings” arranged by Pasin, all alongside the Guaraldi standards. Hoke’s Jukebox called the 2024 edition “smart, sharp, silly and all kinds of sweet,” with “virtuoso all-star quality” — and both the Saratoga and Schenectady performances sold out. The show is all-ages and runs approximately 100 minutes.
Venue & Logistics
Universal Preservation Hall, 25 Washington St., Saratoga Springs, is part of the Proctors Collaborative network of Capital Region performing arts venues. The December 19 performance begins at 2:00 p.m. The same production continues the following evening at the GE Theatre at Proctors in Schenectady. More information at atuph.org.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Advance purchase is worth considering — the 2024 edition sold out Universal Preservation Hall’s 1,100-seat house. Tickets are available through the Proctors Collaborative box office at (518) 346-6204, Tuesday–Saturday, noon–6 p.m. Buy tickets