Lisa Rosillo & Michel Mainil Quartet - The Christmas Songbook (2023)

Here we already have a Christmas album, and in advance. Featuring a vintage cover version worthy of Decca, RCA Victor or Capitol records from the 50s, this album offers some basic holiday elements such as White Christmas, Silent Night or Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, previously sung and popularized by Bing Crosby, but also some lesser-known or forgotten titles.
Among the latter is the funny song "Santa Baby" by Javits and Springer, previously sung by Eartha Kitt, who mischievously unwraps an endless list of absurd gifts for Santa Claus, such as a sable, a blue Chevy 54 convertible, a yacht and a ring. ("Santa Baby, I Believe in You") or Nat King Cole's nostalgic "Nature Boy" with his message of eternal love (The best thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return).
Lisa Rosillo has elegant diction and a singing voice well suited to interpreting these old-fashioned choruses, which, despite their long existence, still make us dream. She takes on a carefree Marilyn Monroe-style accent in "Santa Baby", and in "God Bless The Child" her voice indulges in intonations like Billie Holiday's, thus rediscovering the kind of sadness and loneliness that were the prerogative of the greatest jazz singer of all time.
It should be noted that Lisa of Latin American origin has already collaborated with the saxophonist on the album "Spanish Jazz Project" (2014).
Alain Rochette, a long-time companion of Michel Mainil, plays acoustic or electric piano in a performance imbued with classical jazz, which does not exclude subtle nuances.
On the other hand, the rhythm section has been entrusted to a new tandem, including double bassist Nicholas Yates (a member of Sidewinders with Thomas Champagne) and drummer Christian Verlent, who do a very good job, providing fresh and dynamic support when needed, propulsive, like in the joyful movie "Here comes Santa Claus".
As for the leader of the quartet, his saxophone playing is, as usual, very mature, although here he is cooler and velvety than usual, much closer in spirit to Lester Young than to Sonny Rollins. We can also hear him "spinning" on the clarinet in "Silent Night", another piece with a very pleasant fast tempo.
This album, which celebrates the serene atmosphere of Christmas days, evokes happiness similar to the one you experience when once a year we open a good champagne surrounded by friends near a lighted Christmas tree.