Skip to main content

Jesse Crawford - Organ & Chimes for Christmas

Jesse Crawford
Jesse Crawford and his Organ & Chimes for Christmas fall squarely into a generation divide that pretty much generates one of two responses:

  • "What the hell is this?" or,
  • "Oooh, this sounds like what church sounded like at Christmas."

For those who opt for the first, you may as well stop as this will not get any better. As to the second option, let's be honest those who think this sounds like church likely only ever saw the inside of a church through old movies.

For me, I'm sort of caught in a weird place where I can't listen to this and not conjure up images of the nude organ player from Monty Python or insert a terribly inappropriate voice over to the music that in my head sounds like a southern baptist preacher with a lisp who sounds a bit like Peter Lorre mixed with Ernest P. Worrell. 

However, then there are times I'll feel warmly nostalgic and remember the midnight Christmas Eve services from my childhood where before the service the organist would play carols before the service.

Jesse Crawford himself was quite an accomplished player. Born in 1895 he first gained notoriety accompanying silent films in the 1920s and before he moved into recording. He was a self taught musician and it wasn't until the early 1940s that he took formal lessons. Some of his classmates at the time were George Gershwin, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller among others. He himself would become a teacher.

This particular album, Organ & Chimes for Christmas is another of my Pickwick releases, and as with their other reissues there is no date on the record or jacket. I suspect it was likely from the early 70s, but it's a crap shoot to be honest.

The copy I found was still in the shrink wrap and thankfully it hadn't adhered to the cover. The record it self was in really decent shape, and while there are some pops here and there, it doesn't detract from the experience.

The original recording, was likely released in 1957, which feels about right. It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when the Hammond organ, and before that the Wurlitzer organ in theatres was the epitome of cool.

back cover

If you were wondering, the little voice over didn't keep going on, eventually the music just moved into the background and became a comforting sound that helped to sooth my morning ... no, really. There is something weird, strange and oddly comforting listening to this collection of hymns and standards with the occasional click and pop that just feels like Christmas.

Jesse Crawford passed away at the age of sixty six in 1962.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

6 Cylinder

As a kid we had one radio station, not counting CBC, and generally there was very little that was worth listening to, although there were times something would come on that would make you pay attention. It was 1979 and on a couple of occasions I heard "There Ain't Nobody Here But Us  Chickens" and it cracked me up, and I always wanted to get a copy for myself. A few years ago when my niece was dancing, they did a performance to this song, and now I can't separate my niece from a bunch of dancing chicks in chicken suits. Such is life. When I found this in the dollar bin I actually let out a little chirp, my goodness could it be? It was, and it was in great shape - including the inner sleeve.  Score. I had no idea what to expect, for all I knew there was only one song worth listening to, and if that was the case it was still a dollar well spent. If I could buy an album by Showdown and enjoy it, odds are I'll find something to enjoy here to. Before I put this on I...

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell

File under: TLDR Note to the reader. First sorry, second not really, but I am sorry I don't have the ability to edit. Oh happy Valentine's day.  To celebrate let's take a gander at Meat Loaf's 1977 Bat Out of Hell. Over forty three million people disagree with me but for decades I thought this album was, and continues to be, one giant disappointment. I'll be the first to admit that despite decades of baggage the overwhelming power of nostalgia managed to erode even the hardest of convictions and I found that Bat Out of Hell was one of those albums I wanted to have in my collection, but I wasn't looking all that hard. It was an album I knew more about than I actually knew about. So at this moment in time I'm still holding firm on my long held opinion. But before I get into things, it's time for some meanderambling blurbage ... I remember seeing the cover when I was a kid and thinking it was the single greatest cover I had ever seen. What wonders were to b...

Opus - Up and Down

I snatched this up when I found it. Up and Down was released in '84 the same year "Live is Life" was a worldwide hit. Polydor repackaged the album, dropped a couple of songs from the European release and tacked on "Live is Life" which for those of us over here was a pretty good idea. I also suspect they subbed out the studio version of "Flyin' High" as well. Despite their success much of the band's catalogue was never released in North America, and even now the band has a surprisingly small digital footprint on the streaming platforms. The album is really good, and the title track "Up and Down" that opens the album is really strong with Herwig's soaring vocals and Ewald's tasty fretwork. The whole album is full of pleasant soft rock with hints of AOR and some progressive overtones. Knowing there are songs out there that were left off it makes me wonder what they were like. The nine songs here, seven studio tracks and two live ...