If Judith Owen has released this set of holiday gems to get us ready for the singalong portion of the “Christmas Without Tears” spectacular she and hubby Harry Shearer will be hosting at the Orpheum on December 19, then she has a real cruel streak. Might as well ask us to go one-on-one with Zion Williamson.
We know we’re in trouble even before Owen sings a single note. Jason Marsalis and David Torkanowsky kick off Winter Wonderland as if Lionel Hampton was sitting in with Count Basie and his big band. Imagine it as a ’60s TV holiday special, close-ups on Marsalis’ mallets hitting his vibes, Tork’s fingers dancing on the piano keys, the brass players’ hands massaging their horns. A spotlight flicks on and Owen, a.k.a. Lady J, done up for the season, steps in and lets loose—“Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?”—running the melody over cascades and ripples, toying with the beat like a kitten with a catnip mouse.
Yeah, try singing along with that.
Truth is, this is not really meant as a “Christmas Without Tears” primer. Rather it’s a holiday extension/complement of Owen’s 2022 album Come On & Get It, evoking the spirit of the bold, daring women singers, composers and pianists of the ’40s and ’50s, London—Nellie Lutcher, Blossom Dearie, Julia Lee, Peggy Lee and Pearl Bailey among them—all crucial figures in sparking and inspiring her own musical life. As with that set, these seven songs feature her band of top New Orleans players, her Gentlemen Callers, with Marsalis as special guest on three numbers. And they are up for anything.
“Sleigh Ride” has Owen channeling Dearie’s coquettish side, Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire)” is wee-hours coziness (this would be the intimate rug-in-front-of-a-fireplace song for the TV special). And from there, well, it gets steamy—“Santa Got Stuck (In My Chimney),” “Merry Christmas Baby,” “Back Door Santa,” “Santa Baby.” It’s Santa After Dark.
It’s not naughty. Well, it is, nicely. But it’s really a wintery flip on last year’s album, women taking charge, standing up, smart and sexy and tender and tough all together, on their own terms, Owen giving thanks to the ones who showed her the way and showing the way herself now.
Speaking of naughty, there is that intimidation factor, intended or not, leading up to the Orpheum show. Of course, no one will be going one-on-one with her. We’ll be 1,500 strong in the theater. Maybe we can drown her out. Judith Owen Christmas
