What a Wonderful Christmas

Includes liner notes by Joseph Laredo.
Armstrong purists should note that Satchmo appears only on six of this collection's fourteen selections, and that these 1950s tracks predate his signature tune "What A Wonderful World," which does not appear here. However, when the other performers include Dinah Washington, Eartha Kitt, Mel Torme, Peggy Lee, Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne and Louis Jordan, "filler" is not the word that comes to mind.
Armstrong's Christmas tunes, including standards like "Winter Wonderland" and originals like the aptly-named "Cool Yule," are as full of love and good humor as the man himself. Torme's definitive "The Christmas Song" and Kitt's slinky "Santa Baby" are always welcome, but the set's treasures are rarities like Hampton's big band take on Charles Brown's blues classic "Merry Christmas Baby" and an uncharacteristically subdued "May Everyday Be Christmas" from jump-blues master Jordan. This is a rarity: a Christmas album you can play all year.