Come all ye faithful! Just one more to round out the year, and we couldn’t be happier with this one. Back in 2010, Counterflows head honcho Alasdair Campbell asked composer and multi-instrumentalist Bill Wells to curate and arrange a ‘black xmas’ gig at the Tolbooth in Stirling. Of the tunes Wells arranged, most were released as The National Jazz Trio Of Scotland's Christmas Album (Karaoke Kalk), featuring members of Francois & the Atlas Mountains, Golden Grrls and The One Ensemble. Speaking to Bill recently, it turns out that there are a number of previously unreleased tunes, radio sessions and alternate mixes from the time around the record. After a touch of Bill's magic mixing, we're lucky to have an 'alternate' The National Jazz Trio of Scotland Christmas Album to share with you - all of which (with the exception of Frozen Vaults) are so far unreleased.

Of course, you'll recognise these tunes of old, but the bright, crisp meloncholy that Wells and the extraordinary voices of Isobel Campbell, Aby Vulliamy and Lorna Gilfedder bestow upon each green bough of 'Oh Christmas Tree' might just put tears in your eyes as you blearily look into a bauble this year. 

Classic cockle warmers 'Hark The Herald Angels Sing' and 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful' have been given a cool version of the Wells / Wilson treatment - it's the Beach Boy's Bus on it's way to a Faroe Islands - its frozen lakes iced and glassy yet incredibly warm and inviting.

And yet, in the middle of it all, on Wells' original 'Blood on the Snow', one voice asks, 'what will they do back home / how will they deal with it / when will they get the news / that you didn't make it?', stopping the merriment in its tracks and tuning it's listener to the silence of snow. It's delicate, fragile stuff, direct and unflinching in its delivery.

Free to download for one and all – if you're a member the download will not remove a credit.

Oh Xmas Tree (trad)
Jingle Bells (trad)
Snow (Newman)
Let it Snow (Styne / Cahn)
Blood On The Snow (Gilfedder/ Wells)
Black Xmas (Wells)
Frozen Vaults (Wells)
In The Bleak Midwinter (trad)
Snowed In (Gilfedder / Wells)
Hark The Herald Angels Sing (trad)
Oh Come All Ye Faithful (trad)
Winter Wonderland (Bernard / Smith)

The NJTOS are, on this recording and in order of appearance;
Bill Wells, Kate Sugden, Isobel Campbell, Aby Vulliamy, Lorna Gilfedder, Chris Geddes, Gerard Black & Audrey Bizouerne.

Jingle Bells is performed by Göteborgs Indiekör ccnducted by Niclas Pettersson and arranged by Carl Magnus Juliusson, Fredrik Lindberg & Erik Karlsson from an arrangement by the NJTOS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWWiAJgxUUI

Blood on the Snow was released as a track on ‘Bill Wells Presents Lorna Gilfedder’ which is available on 7e.p.
https://7eptokyo.bandcamp.com/

Apart from Frozen Vaults, all the other tracks are previously unreleased.

The NJTOS Christmas Album is available on Karaoke Kalk
https://karaokekalk.bandcamp.com/

Snowflake cover image by Jad Fair.