Towards the right hand side of the orchestra — which would be stage left — two of the younger members of the band, alto saxophonist Alexa Tarantino and tenor saxophonist Chris Lewis, were both proudly sporting seasonal headwear: She in a light-up holiday tiara and he in a Santa Claus hat.  

And that explains in a nutshell why we love the holidays so much: it’s got nothing to do with spirituality or sentiment, but everything to do with fun.  This is the only time of year when musicians can step onto a concert stage—at Lincoln Center, no less—wearing goofy hats. 

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “Big Band Holidays,” known in previous decades as “Red Hot Holiday Stomp” is obviously, year in and year out, the most popular program on the JALC calendar.  Its popularity expands every year, to the point where the orchestra now gives no less than eight performances, including two matinees on the weekend.

Apart from the silliness—and high spirits—the other most enjoyable aspect of the holidays is the music.  At Jazz at Lincoln Center, the attitude seems to be that these songs, starting with the opener, “Jingle Bells,” are so familiar that the orchestrators can take more chances, and delve into more abstraction, than they would with lesser-known themes.  

In an arrangement by Sherman Irby of this most basic of all holiday themes, we start with James Lord Pierpont’s 1857 tune, with pianist Dan Nimmer playing in counterpoint to the reed section.  The rest of the band kicks in at the chorus—the “Jingle Bells” portion—and then the solos start, beginning with Mr. Lewis. 

After the tenor sax episode and then an equally exciting trombone statement by Mr. Crenshaw, we have arrived at a fairly abstract shout chorus by the whole ensemble. But far-out as it is, it’s never so much so that the audience can’t find the tune, not least because the source theme is so simple and nearly every human in the western world knows it so well. 

Yet despite the familiarity of the canonical Christmas carols, this year’s “Big Band Holidays” offered many surprises.  Vince Guaraldi’s instrumental themes for the original 1965 “Charlie Brown Christmas” represent the most successful menage-a-trois between three separate strains of American culture: jazz, animation (and comic strips), and the holiday spirit.  Doubtless anyone reading this could easily hum or at least recognize “Skating” or “Linus and Lucy”; JALC’s Wynton Marsalis and his father, the late pianist Ellis Marsalis, made a wonderful album of those themes titled “Joe Cool’s Blues” in 1994.  

This year, the music director, Chris Crenshaw, made a surprising choice in the Guaraldi theme from the 1973, “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.”  Producer Lee Mendelsohn’s series of “Peanuts” TV specials had pretty much run out of energy by then, and this particular entry is a dreary affair apart from the music.  But this theme by the pianist, who would die of a heart attack a few years later aged only 47, is one of his most compelling and shows his willingness to take risks with his music. Set in a deceptively complex ¾ time signature, there are multiple strains of melody laid on top of each other in a way that’s both profound and swinging. 

Mr. Irby’s rich arrangement incorporated several unexpected pauses—total silences—that were meant to express Charlie Brown’s inevitable failure to kick a football. “Thanksgiving Theme” is a work that illustrates how, at his best, Guraraldi was in a class with Bacharach or even Brubeck.

On the Friday show, the orchestra followed the “Thanksgiving” theme with guest vocalist Shenel John singing the producer’s own lyrics to “Christmas Time is Here.”  Both numbers went over so well that JALC should consider an all-Guaraldi program, in the spirit of their programs of the music of Chick Corea and Bill Evans, for the 2026 holiday show.

Much of the program was, like “Jingle Bells{: finding new complexity and profundity in relatively simple pieces.  Bassist Carlos Henriquez offered a new arrangement of the traditional New Year’s song “Auld Lang Syne” that included at least a nodding reference to Afro Cuban style.  

The arrangement  started with a robust tenor solo by Abdias Armenteros, muscular in a Sonny Rollins kind of way; after a subsequent statement from guest trumpeter Michael Rodriguez, I confess to being completely lost, I couldn’t find my way through the tune at all, especially when they descended deeper into a clave interlude, and then a trombone hocket section. Still, suffice it to say that I heard more music and more ideas emerging from this ancient Scots tune that I would have believed possible. 

In recent years especially, JALC has been fortunate in its singers, and this year’s show featured the very worthy Shenel Johns along with the 23-year-old Sarah Vaughan competition winner and Juilliard grad student, Kate Kortum. The latter, on different nights, sang superbly both “White Christmas” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”  The two also teamed up for the finale on “Winter Wonderland.” 

Mr. Crenshaw himself arranged what might be my personal highlight, behind a marvelous vocal by Ms. Johns. In introducing “Must Be Santa,” he pointed out that it was originally adapted from “Schnitzelbank,” an old German drinking song; but didn’t mention that it was recorded definitively by everybody’s favorite accordion band, Brave Combo, whose version inspired a bizarre but satisfying rendition by, of all people, Bob Dylan.  

This number may be the first time I’ve heard anything resembling a certain specific teutonic dance rhythm coming from this orchestra—although admittedly there wasn’t much of that particular beat left when they got finished with it.  Still, I look forward to the inevitable inauguration of a new division at this particular institution, alongside the symphony, ballet, opera, and, most recently, jazz.  Get ready for “Polka at Lincoln Center.”