Pianist/composer Christian Sands’ cinematic approach to popular holiday classics takes center stage with Christmas Stories, his first album since his critically acclaimed, GRAMMY® nominated 2020 release Be Water. Having performed in-demand Christmas shows at Jazz at Lincoln Center and around the world, Sands offers such classics as “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Silent Night,” “Jingle Bells,” and “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” as well as a few surprises. Joining the NAACP Image Award nominee are vibraphonist Stefon Harris, saxophonist Jimmy Greene, guitarists Max Light and Marvin Sewell, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, percussionist Keita Ogawa, and drummer Ryan Sands.

The names of Johann Sebastian Bach, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff do not necessarily conjure images and sounds of jazz in one's mind, that is until one has listened to recordings by the Classical Jazz Quartet. Although these musicians utilize the same instruments as the Modern Jazz Quartet, they are in no way clones or copycats of that groundbreaking group. They have very much their own sound and style. This is not surprising given the huge talent of the musicians involved; all four are virtuosos on their respective instruments. The themes, although composed in a different time and place, become excellent vehicles for complex, sometimes, bluesy, often swinging and always fresh improvisations in the hands of these musicians.

The Classical Jazz Quartet Kenny Barron on piano, Ron Carter on bass, Stefon Harris on vibraphone and marimba, and Lewis Nash on drums seems to begin where the Modern Jazz Quartet of the 1950s left off, right down to the CJQ initials that seem to evoke memories of the earlier group. Bach was the staple of the classical-music treatments the MJQ released.