National Jazz Trio of Scotland's Christmas Album

Tracks:
A1 Oh Xmas Tree 2:08
A2 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 3:05
A3 Hark The Herald Angels Sing 3:29
A4 Carol Of The Birds 3:13
A5 Winter Wonderland 3:12
A6 Jingle Bells 3:12

B7 I Saw Three Ships 2:15
B8 Good King Wenceslas 4:09
B9 The Christmas Song 4:30
B10 In The Bleak Mid - Winter 1:47
B11 Oh Come All Ye Faithful 3:02
B12 We Three Kings 4:25

With Wells playing all instruments apart from Vulliamy's sampled viola, the album's disparate elements go similarly beyond novelty value to make something equally profound. As the sole male presence on the album besides Wells, Black is noted for being the only voice that sounds even vaguely joyful.

Bill Wells' National Jazz Trio of Scotland aren't a jazz band. Nor are they a trio. Wells formed what was originally an instrumental-based band along with various players from the Glasgow indie scene who had embraced the self-taught composer, arranger, pianist and bass player as one of their own. Wells named his group as a cheeky pop at Scotland's jazz hierarchy unable or unwilling to get that it was okay to look to Brian Wilson and Burt Bacharach as much as Mingus and Monk for inspiration.

The roots of the NJToS Christmas Album date back to the end of 2010, when Wells was invited to curate a night called Black Christmas. A set of what was then described as 'off-kilter covers of Christmas classics' was premiered, with vocals provided by viola player Aby Vulliamy, drummer Kate Sugden and Lorna Gilfedder, previously drummer with Park Attack before singing and playing guitar in Golden Grrrls.

Recorded by Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake and featuring snow-flake cover art by Jad Fair, the NJToS Christmas Album refreshes twelve seasonal songs in startlingly apposite fashion. By engaging four different singers, including Francois and the Atlas Mountains' Gerard Black, Wells invests seemingly throwaway sing-alongs with a new sense of seriousness and weight that also lays bare the fragile ambiguities of sentiments previously taken at face value.

With Wells playing all instruments apart from Vulliamy's sampled viola, the album's disparate elements go similarly beyond novelty value to make something equally profound. As the sole male presence on the album besides Wells, Black is noted for being the only voice that sounds even vaguely joyful.