Christmas Jazz Quintet – Video Montage
Add this to the list of many things that were done differently in 2020: Christmas parties. We’ve been holding an annual Christmas sing-along for several years (having carried on the tradition from my wife’s family who started hosting sing-alongs even before she was born!), but it is one of those many things that was altered this year.
In lieu of inviting a bunch of people inside our home to sing, we organized an outdoor jazz quintet to play some (rather unrehearsed) Christmas tunes for the neighborhood. Our kids LOVED it, spending most of the time bopping around next to us on the porch. Several neighbors – but not too many at a time! – wandered by to stop and listen, and by the second night several had come prepared to brave the cold from their own porches while listening to the music.
One attendee told me that it was the closest thing to a normal Christmas and holiday season he’d experienced thus far in 2020. This year has been anything but normal of course, but hearing those tunes played live and unexpectedly must have brought some of the special magic and perennial newness of Christmastime – as one of the musicians, I can say that it certainly did for us.
I compiled some video recordings into this montage of the performance. Perhaps it will become a yearly tradition – and perhaps next year, we’ll be able to go inside together and warm up afterwards!