Album: Nils Landgren, Christmas with My Friends Vol III (Act Music)

A third Christmas live album by the Swedish trombonist, recorded in a Stockholm church.

Well might you push back your hat on your head and gasp. The format is as before: a small ensemble singing and playing for the Christmassy edification of everyone. Intimate, warm, generous, sugar-frosted, with lots of trombone. Peter Warlock, Joni Mitchell ("River"), "Away in a Manger" and, ickiest of all, "Imagine". From the sublime to the icky in one festive over-reach.