Oscar Peterson: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

Sunday is jazz day and this is a Holiday edition. Holiday jazz tunes are often the only jazz that some will hear all year. There is certainly no shortage of options when selecting a Holiday jazz tune, but we do have our favorites at the Faux household. At the top of that list is An Oscar Peterson Christmas. It was recorded late in his career (in 1995 at the age of 70) after he recovered enough from a stroke to record again. It is a wonderful collection of Holiday jazz tunes by one of the all-time great pianists. In the context of my Intro To Jazz series, this is a tune by a quartet featuring all rhythm (piano, bass, drums, guitar). There are solos by piano (Peterson), guitar, and bass and the arrangement is a basic head, solos, outro structure. Here are the lyrics if you want to sing along.

God rest ye merry gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas Day
To save us all from Satan’s pow’r
When we were gone astray
Oh tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
Oh tidings of comfort and joy

To learn more about Oscar Peterson, check out his Wikipedia page.

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

• Holiday Music
• Intro to Jazz
• Sunday Jazz