Liner Notes by David R. Halliday
The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat (Proverbs 13:4, KJV).
A Fat Soul Christmaswas released in 2003, on the heels of the band’s eponymous debut album Fat Soul, whose success has been largely due to Halliday’s big, bluesy, Texas tenor sound, which Billy Kerr lauded in Saxophone Journal, quickly pointing out that Halliday’s artistry is far from limited to that extroverted style: “Make no mistake, he is no ordinary R&B player. His saxophone playing and his music are at the highest levels, great dark, fat sound, wonderful time and feel, as well as a clean, fast technique . . . I’m sure he could play any kind of music.”
Indeed, Halliday’s versatility extends far beyond that big R&B sound through the sensitive, straight-ahead jazz ballad-playing on his album Dreamsville(whose title cut has to date received over 7 million streams on Spotify’s Coffee Table Jazz playlist) to his gig as a featured soloist with the Utah Symphony, performing John Williams’s knuckle-busting virtuoso piece for alto saxophone “Joy Ride,” from the score of the film Catch Me If You Can.
Halliday further shows his versatility on A Fat Soul Christmas, eschewing his well-known extroverted sound to reveal a lyrical and introspective side on a set of Yuletide favorites – ideal accompaniment to trimming the tree, pouring some of your favorite Scotch, and relaxing by a cozy fire on snowy winter nights.
The most famous recording of the album’s first track “The Little Drummer Boy” by the Harry Simeone Choral hit the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959, again in 1960, and once more in 1962. But since the song’s debut, it’s been recorded by numerous artists including Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, Johnny Mathis, Lou Rawls, Kenny Burrell, Ray Charles, and Josh Groban. Fat Soul’s rendition begins appropriately with the drums of Steve Lyman (who’s since graduated from New York’s New School) setting the tempo. Justin Cash’s guitar enters with an exotic, Middle Eastern twang, establishing a figure he repeats with subtle variations throughout, while Halliday adds the song’s plaintive melody with stark simplicity on soprano saxophone, evoking the star-lit Judean landscape over which the little drummer boy has journeyed to do homage to his new-born King.
The album’s second track “The Christmas Song” (aka “Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire”) was written in less than an hour by Bob Wells and Mel Tormé during a 1945 Southern California heat wave– an effort to “stay cool by thinking cool,” invoking such cold-weather imagery as Jack Frost, eskimos, and Santa’s journey from the North Pole. First recorded in 1946 by The Nat King Cole Trio, a track that peaked at #3 on the pop chart and was eventually inducted into the NARAS Hall of Fame. Augmented with a small string section, the recording charted again in ’47, ’49 and, with fuller arrangements (including one by Nelson Riddle), again in 1953, ’54, and ‘60. Halliday’s warm tenor here recalls Cole’s velvet vocal on the classic original.
“Silver Bells,” the album’s third track, written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans was a hit for Bing Crosby in 1942. Halliday’s paternal grandmother’s favorite Christmas song, the band delivers a suitably loving rendition, beginning with Johnson’s insistent pedal point, followed by Halliday and Cash stating the melody and each then taking gently swinging solos, culminating in a return to the initial feel of the performance for a restatement of the melody and a leisurely vamp to bring the performance to its conclusion.
“Winter Wonderland,” the album’s fourth track, composed in 1934 by Felix Bernard, with lyrics by Richard B. Smith, is cited in Lissauer’s Encyclopedia of Popular Music in America as a “perennial season success . . . recorded by almost every singer and orchestra who has made a Christmas album,” a diverse list of artists that includes Guy Lombardo, Ted Weems, Perry Como, The Andrews Sisters, Johnny Mercer, Ramsey Lewis, and Dolly Parton. Fat Soul takes the song at an easy, swinging tempo with Halliday’s tenor stating the melody and swapping improvised choruses with Cash, after which the two trade fours and Halliday restates the melody, leading to Cash’s terse, Basie-like concluding statement.
“Sleigh Ride,” the album’s fifth track, originally an instrumental piece by Leroy Anderson, was begun during a July heat wave in 1946 and finished in the winter of 1948 with lyrics added in 1950 by Mitchell Parish. Another perennial wintertime favorite, “Sleigh Ride” has an extensive and diverse recording history beginning with a 1949 performance by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, subsequently covered by the likes of The Andrews Sisters, Bing Crosby, Ferrante & Teicher, Johnny Mathis, Ella Fitzgerald, a Phil Spector-produced version by the Ronettes, The Ventures, The Carpenters, Glen Campbell, The Squirrel Nut Zippers, and a Grammy-nominated release by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Fat Soul here provides a boppish version with Halliday soloing energetically on alto saxophone and trading fours with drummer Lyman.
Greensleeves, the album’s sixth track, presents a song at least as old as the English Renaissance. Some claim that Henry VIII wrote it for Ann Boleyn and Shakespeare alludes to it in The Merry Wives of Windsor. It has been associated with the Christmas season since the 17thcentury, having been graced with numerous Christmas-themed lyrics, the most popular of which are probably those which provide the title “What Child Is This,” penned by William Chatterton Dix in 1865. The song has been covered over the years by Odetta, Elvis Presley, John Coltrane, Jethro Tull, Vince Guaraldi, and Glen Campbell, and it served as the inspiration for 20thcentury classical composer Ralph Vaughan Williams’s lush orchestral piece “Fantasia on Greensleeves.” Fat Soul’s version relies almost exclusively on Justin Cash’s lyrical guitar interpretation.
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” the album’s seventh track, a song of longing, written by Kim Gannon and Walter Kent, was released by Bing Crosby in 1943 and rose to #3 on the pop charts, with understandable widespread appeal during World War II for soldiers on the battlefield and their families at home. It has since become a Christmas standard with covers by Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis, Connie Francis, Jack Jones, Anita Baker, Pentatonix, and Demi Lovato. Fat Soul presents the song as a leisurely bossa nova with Halliday stating the melody and trading improvised solos with Cash before restating the melody and taking the performance out over a vamp with a quote from “Brazil.”
“The Christmas Waltz,” the album’s eighth track, was written by composer Jule Styne and lyricist Sammy Cahn at the request (or demand) of Frank Sinatra. As Cahn recalls, Styne called him on a hot day in July to tell him “Frank wants a Christmas song.” Cahn responded with reticence, whereupon Styne repeated, more emphatically, “Frank wants a Christmas song.” When the two got together in Styne’s apartment to work on the song, Cahn asked Styne if he knew of any Christmas waltz. When Styne said no, Cahn asked him to play a waltz that he’d apparently been working on. This melody appealed to Cahn’s lyrical sense and he supplied accompanying words, thus completing “The Christmas Waltz” and supplying the B-side (with a Nelson Riddle arrangement) to Frank’s 1954 recording of “White Christmas.” Over the years, The Christmas Waltz” has been covered by numerous artists, including Peggy Lee, Doris Day, Jack Jones, Bing Crosby, Pat Boone, The Lettermen, Nancy Wilson, Mel Torme, Anita O’Day, Oscar Peterson, Scott Hamilton, George Shearing, The Brecker Brothers, and Tony Bennett, to name a few. But the song didn’t chart until Harry Connick’s 2003 recording. On Fat Soul’s version, Halliday’s warm tenor is featured throughout, celebrating, in Cahn’s words, “that time of year when the world falls in love.”
“White Christmas,” the album’s ninth track, words and music by Irving Berlin, debuted by Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds in the film Holiday Inn(1942), went on to win an Academy Award, and became, in Lissauer’s words, the “most famous and biggest selling Christmas song of the 20thcentury,” with Crosby’s 1942 version alone selling over 50 million copies. Add to that number the myriad of cover versions by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Karen Carpenter, Neil Diamond, Bette Midler, Crash Test Dummies, Ernest Tubb, The Ravens, Clyde McPhatter, The Drifters, Andy Williams, Otis Redding, Garth Brooks, Michael Bolton, and Michael Buble, to name a few, and the total sales of the song jumps to over 100 million. Fat Soul’s version swings at a medium tempo with Halliday stating the melody, Cash improvising a solo, Halliday adding another improvised solo and then restating the melody to bring the performance to a close.
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” the album’s tenth track, written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, was introduced by Judy Garland, singing it to lift the downcast spirits of Margaret O’Brien, her near-inconsolable five-year-old little sister, in the 1944 MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis. AFI has ranked the song #76 in its 100 Top Tunes in American Cinema. It has been covered by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, The Pretenders, James Taylor, and Luther Vandross, among many others. Fat Soul’s performance of the song here is perhaps the most intimate of the album, Halliday’s big, hollow tenor sound leading the way with a statement of the plaintive melody, followed by Cash’s meditative solo and an equally introspective solo by Halliday before he restates the melody to bring the proceedings to a poignant conclusion.
“Silent Night (German: Stille Nacht),” the album’s eleventh track, lyrics by Father Joseph Mohr and music by Franz Gruber, first performed in the village of Oberndorf, Austria on Christmas Eve, 1818, is Halliday’s mother Jill’s favorite Christmas carol, a sentiment she shares with millions throughout the world (Bing Crosby’s version is the third best-selling single of all-time and UNESCO declared “Silent Night” an “Intangible Cultural Heritage” in 2011). Here Halliday (on soprano saxophone) and Cash provide a lovingly reverent, straight forward tribute, with neither departing from the original melody, upon which transcendent lyrics and centuries of tradition have bestowed a kind of sanctity.
“The Little Drummer Boy,” the album’s twelfth track, is an extended version of the album’s opener, augmented by some of Fat Soul’s genius engineer Mark “Big Finger” Fasbender’s special sonic effects.
