Heinz Records
California dreamin’ on a winter’s day the perpetually upbeat semi-sophisticated jazz-pop of Pink Martini returns with a seasonal offering that puts a globalized spin on the traditional Yuletide lounge-and-lush fare.
As pure as the driven snow China Forbes’s “White Christmas” — prefaced by a sunny palm-tree introduction taken from the classic film Holiday Inn — could come right out of the Mad Men era. Confusingly the trendy ensemble immediately repeats this song selection delivering its “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” moment as Japanese vocalist Saori Yuki delivers her best Bing Crosby in her native tongue. Here perhaps Pink Martini should have put “cohesion” and “flow” on its holiday wish list as an uninspired choral arrangement of “Schedryk/Silver Bells” gives way to a doo-wopped “Santa Baby” that comes across as coy and fluffy; despite a few bluesy riffs it doesn’t even leave footprints in the snow.
Next up is the solemn “Elohai N’tzor” for those who can’t get enough Sephardic spiritualism this time of year followed by a sparse and leathery griot’s version of “Little Drummer Boy” cheaply decorated with an imitation caravan of horns and rattles. Plucky Spanish guitar raises the profile of the Chinese New Year ballad “Congratulations” a clumsy she sideshow that precedes the brushed snare and gondolier strums of “Do You Hear What I Hear?” Yes I hear it but I still don’t understand it. A hit-and-miss five-disc holiday shuffle crammed into one puzzling package Pink Martini’s Joy to the World amounts to a big bowl of bridge mix — one part nuts five parts crystallized mystery fruit.
