Marcus Roberts Trio - Celebrating Christmas (2011)

'Celebrating Christmas,' preeminent jazz pianist Marcus Roberts' majestic new album, brings an astounding level of artistry and insight to fifteen beloved holiday classics. Roberts is joined by Rodney Jordan on bass and his longtime drummer Jason Marsalis, together forming an exuberant trio that weaves familiar holiday melodies into the layered rhythms, tones and textures of traditional jazz, bebop and other touchstones of the genre. In his extended liner notes, Roberts cites Ahmad Jamal as inspiration for his lush "White Christmas" and New Orleans for the driving second line drums on "Little Drummer Boy." "It's a very joyous and celebratory album," says Roberts, who also performs solo piano arrangements of "We Three Kings," a meditative Chopin-esque waltz and "Joy To The World," a slow-burning piano rag.