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I took one look at Jacqui Naylor's Smashed for the Holidays and thought to myself "Yes, that sounds familiar… those were the days!" But, um, it's nothing like what I was thinking at all. No, when Jacqui Naylor says "smashed" she is referring to something quite different. Naylor and her band have put together several songs matching a pattern sometimes called "A versus B", where an instrumental rendering of song A is accompanied by an a cappella rendering of song B. Sometimes, this is done by skillful editing of the songs of two different artists (this is called a "mashup"). But in the case of Naylor & Company, elements from both songs are recorded at once.

This type of performance is technically advanced. Most artists could not even conceive matching songs, and even fewer could pull off the technique in performance. Jacqui Naylor and her band do it with an effortlessness that makes it all seem charming. The effect is similar to hearing a song sung as a round. My favorite one was Silver Bells "smashed" with Every Breath You Take, whose juxtaposition created an ironic effect that had me giggling.

Of course, a little bit of this technique goes a long way, and indeed the technique is used on fewer than half of the tracks. At other times, Naylor sings jazz. Does she ever sing jazz! I believe everybody knows by now that jazz is an acquired taste for me, and I become meaner than Chef Ramsey at the first hint of pretentiousness when I listen to jazz. No need for any Hell's Kitchen theatrics here, though. Naylor's voice is authentic and sultry; she has the pipes, the phrasing, and all those other jazzy things the jazz critics like to talk about.

Not that this is purely a jazz record. Jacqui Naylor sings jazz here, though not on every track. Paradoxically, her band provides rock accompaniment to some tracks, even when Naylor is singing jazz, for example on the enchanting Celebrate Early And Often.

Strange, indeed, but effective, and refreshing. I haven't heard anything quite like Jacqui Naylor's Smashed for the Holidays. It stacks up as one of this season's Top Picks, for sure.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2007)

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From the liner notes:

Featuring Jacqui Naylor, Art Khu, Jon Evans, Josh Jones and special guests
Produced by Art Khu, Michael Romanowski and Jacqui Naylor
Recorded, mixed and mastered in California

From the promotional materials:

For her long-awaited holiday CD, vocalist and songwriter Jacqui Naylor has melded a seamless combination of classic rock and holiday classics. Tying everything together is the artist's trademark "acoustic smashing," where here she sings a holiday standard while the band plays a well-known rock tune.

Naylor kicks off her holiday tour at the famed Herbst Theatre in San Francisco on Saturday, November 3rd with a concert for the San Francisco Jazz Festival.

Jacqui Naylor

Smashed for the Holidays

Artist link

Track List