That's The Way I Feel Now (It's Only Christmas Bringing Me Down)

The title above is self-explanatory. If you revel in the 'Spirit of Christmas' read no further, as this week's post is not for you. On the other hand, if you find the 'Holiday Season' to be an overblown, forced exercise in gaiety and merrymaking, filled with more false hope and broken promise than a F.E.M.A. relief effort, you've found a kindred soul. Not that I wish to be curmudgeonly. In theory, I fully embrace the concept of Christmas. Peace on earth, global unity and brotherhood of man are the noblest of wishes. True paradise would surely be a new world order devoid of conflict, strife and greed. The problem however is that those aspirations have proven millennium after millennium to be completely unrealistic and wholly unobtainable. All the warm spirit and glad tidings that fill the season cannot possibly counteract the basic inhumanities embedded deep in our DNA and carried with us since the dawn of time. The implied reasoning that setting aside 5 weeks of the year to exercise the fundamental and altruistic values of fellowship means nothing, especially if those values are not held universally and practiced unwaveringly, day in and day out. Sadly, the implicit tenets behind Christmas have failed me. Commerce has become king and the 'spirit' convoluted and compromised. In our modern society, the 'Season of Giving' equates to material consumerism rather than the more organic and genuine giving of self. The result is that the holiday lamentably holds little more for me than emptiness and heartache, intensified that much more by the obligatory seasonal cheer that often rings just too false.

It's a conflicted this time of year for me, as this weeks music will demonstrate. However, I do encourage you to celebrate and make it joyous if you can. A little benevolence would certainly benefit us all. But ask yourself come January whether you can truly carry the spirit of Christmas with you through the year to come? If your answer is yes, I heartily commend and thank you for the scope of your humanity. You and few others will stand alone. Meanwhile, a vast segment of Western civilization will be masturbating over their latest electronic gadgets, shopping for year-end bargains on unnecessary paraphernalia to supplement them and stowing away the decorations to be largely forgotten until next December. Regrettably, along with the ornaments and colored lights, the true spiritual essence of Christmas will also get pushed deeper to the recesses of the closet, where it too will eventually be lost and forgotten.

That's The Way I Feel Now

1) Christmastime Is Here/Vince Guaraldi Trio
2) Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow/Marcus Roberts
3) Billy's Blues/Laura Nyro
4) Monk's Mood/Sharon Freeman Band
5) Vauncing Chimes/Bobby Watson & Horizon
6) I Remember You/Stanley Turrentine & Milt Jackson
7) Pannonica/Barry Harris
8) Útviklingssang/Carla Bley Big Band
9) Where Am I Going/Manfred Mann's Chapter Three
10 & 11) Medley: Big City Traffic Jam:Joy To The World/John Simon
12) White Christmas/Dick Hyman
13) Cherry Blossom/Horace Silver Trio
14) Could Be/Les McCann & Gerald Wilson Orchestra
15) The Glow/Bonnie Raitt
16) The Voice Of The Saxophone/Heath Brothers
17) Silent Night/Benny Green

To download, click here.

The photograph in this post comes courtesy of David Kohrman from his wonderful website, Forgotten Detroit.