Before Mariah Carey took possession of the holiday airwaves with “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” songs by the great American songwriters dominated the Christmas season.
Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Peggy Lee had hits with holiday standards in ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s, and jazz vocalist Jane Monheit follows in that tradition today.
Monheit will perform a Christmas show on Sunday at The Jazz & Blues Market (formerly the New Orleans Jazz Market), and Christmas music has become an important part of her musical identity. She released her first Christmas album, “The Season,” in 2005, and she followed it up in 2022 with “The Merriest.” It’s something she talks about with enthusiasm, only slowing down to brush a lock of black hair out of her face or check on the senior dog in her lap.
Monheit landed in the public eye in the early 2000s, and from the start she sold about as well as jazz can sell, with her first five albums in the top five on Billboard’s Jazz charts.
She was less than two years out of the prestigious Manhattan School of Music when she started her career, and critic Joel Siegel wrote for JazzTimes, “Monheit has a rich, vibrant voice and strong musical instincts.” She leaned heavily on some the most sung-from pages in the body of songs collectively referred to as the Great American Songbook on her debut, “Never Never Land,” and that became one of her artistic signatures.
“The challenge is to be original,” Monheit said. “These tunes have been recorded brilliantly so many thousands of times, it’s important to be authentic. I was raised on the Songbook, and it’s always been my most natural language.”
“The Season” followed, and AllMusic’s Johnny Loftus called it a mix of “striking professionalism with a gentle, breathy swagger that’s pretty endearing.” It leaned heavily on standards, but she broadened her vision by including a version of The Carpenters’ “Merry Christmas Darling,” her one must-have on the album.
“I’ve just always really loved the song!” she said, as a fan of both Karen Carpenter’s voice and “Christmas Portrait” by The Carpenters.
“The Season” leans more on holiday songs for adults, including “The Christmas Waltz.” The album ends on that note with “My Grown-Up Christmas List,” which calls for “no more lives torn apart / and wars would never start.” It’s a relatively modern Christmas song written by producer David Foster in 1989 and recorded by Amy Grant in 1992.
Monheit returned to Christmas music in 2022 with “The Merriest.” This time, she rescued another personal favorite, “That Holiday Favorite,” the title track from the 1964 Christmas album by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. In the 1970s, they were staples on television talk shows, but the song suggests why they were famous in the first place. Monheit is particularly drawn to Gorme’s contribution.
“Her gorgeous instrument, most of all,” she said. “And her absolute dedication to drama.”
“The Merriest” also includes a version of “Christmas Time is Here,” the song from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” that introduced children to jazz for decades. It wasn’t a song Monheit had planned on, but a version began to emerge almost at random during recording, she said. She preserves the spare, haunting quality of the original, but a bowed cello adds a lovely counterpoint and a new sound to a very familiar song.
“One of the brilliant bass players I work with, Karl McComas Reichl, is also a cellist, and I thought it would be the perfect addition,” Monheit said. “We improvised the arrangement on the spot.”
Christmas season tours have become an annual tradition for Monheit. She experiences the holiday season on the road and adjusts the show to mirror the changes all of us go through as the calendar approaches Dec. 25.
“Winter, not Christmas songs before December,” she said. “Anything goes after that!”
If you go
Jane Monheit “Holiday Show”
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7
WHERE: Jazz and Blues Market, 1436 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., New Orleans
INFO: (504) 636-8390
TICKETS: $31.45-67.55