Jimmy Smith - Christmas cookin'

There are some albums which we listen to almost only on one day in a year, for example on Christmas day. Christmas cookin' - a nice black-mood title for a sweet, loose album. I use this word in the following way: the songs are played in the possible maximum loosy way. They just float, keep us calm and hunt for joy - yes, we can feel that this music is a result of some kind of happines and feeling good-mood. This happiness is paired with the silence and deepening of Christmas. Just to mention the most famous ones: Jingle bells, Silent night, Greensleeves. Silent night, like other songs on this album got a serious, celebrational frame, and after the start the songs bravely change to joy in one moment - provided by Jimmy's singing melodies.

Greensleeves is a traditional English song which can be found even in the 16th century literature memories. There's a legend about that it was written by Henry VIII for his lover and future queen consort Anne Boleyn. Boleyn allegedly rejected King Henry's attempts to seduce her and this rejection may be referred to in the song when the writer's love "cast me off discourteously". There is, however, no available evidence that King Henry did in fact compose "Greensleeves", which is probably Elizabethan in origin and based on an Italian style of composition that did not reach England until after his death. You can hear it on the following albums, too: John Coltrane - Africa/brass, Kenny Burrell - Guitar forms.

Baby, it's cold outside is an American pop duet composed by Frank Loesser. In the vocal version the female voice in the song is called "The Mouse" and the male "The Wolf." The lyrics consist of his attempts to convince her to stay with him at the end of a date; her indecisive protests reveal that although she feels obligated to go home, she is tempted to stay, partially because, as the title suggests, "It's cold outside.".

Read about the song God rest ye merry gentlemen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_rest_you_merry,_gentlemen

Jingle bells: