Christmas Jazz Jam in twenty years. For the album, Marsalis assembled a group of ten musicians to perform uncredited arrangements of twelve holiday standards. Following "Mary Had a Baby" are traditional New Orleans jazz-style renditions of "Jingle Bells" (James Pierpont) and "Blue Christmas" (Billy Hayes, Jay W. Johnson). Kirk Silsbee of the "Los Angeles Times" awarded the album three of four stars and called the arrangements "smart yet not ostentatious". In 2009 "Christmas Jazz Jam" reached peak positions of number six on "Billboard" Jazz Albums chart, number nine on the Top Holiday Albums chart, and number nineteen on the Top Independent Albums chart.
Christmas (song) "Christmas" was praised by critics. Richie Unterberger of AllMusic called it an "excellent song." "Rolling Stone"'s Mac Randall said it was one of several "prime Pete Townshend songs" on the album. A review in "Life" by Albert Goldman considered it beautiful and highlighted the song's "croaking chorus". James Perone said it was "perhaps one of the best sleeper tracks of the collection." The Smithereens did a cover on their 2007 album "Christmas with The Smithereens." Leslie Odom, Jr. did a cover on the deluxe edition of his album "Simply Christmas." Christmas (song) "Christmas" is a song written by Pete Townshend