Personnel includes: B.B. King (vocals, arranger, guitar); Leon Warren (guitar); Melvin Jackson (saxophone); Stanley Abernathy, James Bolden (trumpet); James Sells Toney (keyboards); Michael Doster (bass); Calep Emphrey Jr. (drums).
Recorded at Dockside, Maurice, Louisiana; Sound On Sound, Unique Studios, New York, New York.
A CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION OF HOPE won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.
"Auld Lang Syne" won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.
Personnel: Leon Warren (guitar); Melvin Jackson (saxophone); Stanley Abernathy, James Bolden (trumpet); James Toney (keyboards); Calep Emphrey (drums); Tony Coleman (tambourine).
Audio Mixers: John Holbrook; Josiah Gluck.
Recording information: Dockside Studios, Maurice, LA; Sound On Sound Studios; Unique Studios, NY.
Photographer: Kevin Westenberg.
Arranger: B.B. King.
It took B.B. King a long time to get around to his first Christmas album, which didn't appear until about half a century into his recording career. It's an adequate, good-humored reprisal of various holiday chestnuts, among them some material with blues/R&B origins, like "Merry Christmas Baby." King wrote just one new song for the album, the instrumental "Christmas Love," though he did originally record another of the tracks, "Christmas Celebration," back in 1960. Wisely he plays "Auld Lang Syne" as a funky instrumental instead of vocalizing the singalong lyrics. In addition to periodic bursts of King's trademark guitar, there is plenty of brass and organ in the peppy arrangements. The Nashville String Machine adds its strings to just three tracks, which cuts down on over-produced excess (which is only a problem on "Please Come Home for Christmas"). It's hardly the first King you'll pull off your shelf, and not the first R&B Christmas album you'll turn to either, but you could do worse in the holiday season. ~ Richie Unterberger
After nearly five decades of making music, B.B. King ducked into the studio with his touring band to come up with his very first holiday album, A CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION OF HOPE. Despite bringing in The Nashville String Machine, co-producer King used them in a way that enhanced his rich singing on lush versions of Billy Ward's "Christmas In Heaven" and a pair of Charles Brown perennials--"Please Come Home For Christmas" and "Merry Christmas Baby." Other artists getting the royal treatment are Clarence Carter (a funky "Back Door Santa") and Amos Milburn (the brass-soaked "Christmas Comes But Once A Year"). The only originals the King Of The Blues trots out are his resurrected 1960 shuffle "Christmas Celebration" and the more recent slow blues instrumental "Christmas Love."
King even squeezes in a tribute to the New Year with a rollicking take on Brown's "Bringing In A Brand New Year" and an equally swinging instrumental interpretation of "Auld Lang Syne." In true holiday spirit, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of A CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION OF HOPE will fund innovative research and compassionate patient care programs at the California-based City of Hope, a world-renowned comprehensive cancer center. minimize