Right-Click to Save    If you like jazz, you’ll enjoy this. If you don’t like jazz – you’ll hate it.  The song is “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” – in case you don’t recognize it.  Personally, I love playing in a jazz style – mostly because I’m not good or patient enough to play in a “structured” way.  I’m a “hack’ and I know it.

It was first sung on Eddie Cantor’s radio show in 1934 (before my time).  It sold 30,000 copies in 24 hours, so apparently that qualifies as an instant hit.  I grew up listening to Perry Como sing it, then Bruce Springsteen massacred the tune and ruined it for me.

You can’t sing this version, so it goes on the Instrumental Jazz list, or you can download it here.  You might pay attention to the guitar throughout this arrangement – you can’t play the keys that fast for a long period of time so I used the ‘arpeggiator” built into the Yamaha – I love that thing.  It let’s you pick and sustain notes indefinitely…which is heaven-sent for a lazy keyboardist like me.  I used 8 tracks for this one – piano, bass, drums, organ, marimba, synth brass, tenor sax, and that lovely guitar.  It all comes together for a nifty, though different, combination – unless, of course, you don’t like jazz.