Credits:

Christian Sands

Description:

Christmas Stories arrives nearly four years after pianist Christian Sands released the NAACP Image Award-winning, Grammy-nominated post-bop masterpiece Be Water. Sands has been playing in-demand Christmas gigs for Jazz at Lincoln Center and elsewhere around the world. While this music is lighthearted, the pianist and his octet — vibraphonist Stefon Harris, saxophonist Jimmy Greene, guitarists Max Light and Marvin Sewell, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, percussionist Keita Ogawa, and drummer Ryan Sands — treat this music quite seriously, making it a vehicle for jazz improvisation as well as holiday reverie.