December 2005

Various Artists
Christmas Remixed 2
Six Degrees

By Tad Hendrickson

Christmas Remixed 2 features contemporary takes on holiday-music performance by the likes of Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and Joe Williams. The most interesting tunes come from Red Baron's mash-up of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" and 46Bliss' dreamy version of "Silent Night" featuring Mahalia Jackson. Charlie Parker's version of "White Christmas" is scrambled with an entirely new backing for his solo flight. Most jazz remixes tend to be very annoying or quite intriguing--the Bird tune is the former, but most of the songs on this album are the latter.