Christmas songs #5: Fats Waller, Swingin’ Them Jingle Bells
Waller was a master of subversion, taking standard (often very corny) tunes and turning them inside out with his mocking vocals and masterly stride piano. Here Fats and the boys (including Herman ‘Yard Dog’ Autrey on trumpet, Gene Sedric on sax and Al Casey on guitar) are giving ‘Jingle Bells’ the treatment. It was recorded on November 29, 1936 and it sounds like they’d already started celebrating:
