For those unaware, Uptown Vocal Jazz Quartet (“UVJQ”) is back just in time for the holidays!

The singing foursome and their supporting musicians have put their creative stamp on the timeless art of sizzling, swinging 4-part harmony vocal jazz over the years with their original songbook recordings and celebrated collaboration album with the late saxophonist Richie Cole, who declared the group “my new discovery, the whole package.”

Now UVJQ has released a long awaited holiday album entitled Fools for Yule which dishes up a smorgasbord of original holiday songs destined to become seasonal classics by the group’s principal songwriter and arranger Ginny Carr Goldberg (Fool for Yule, Whisper, It Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas and more), along with their delightfully fresh takes on beloved holiday classics.

Uptown Vocal Jazz Quartet’s celebrated songwriting, hip arrangements, joyful delivery and eclectic performance range are on full display with this very special seasonal album.

1. I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm (Irving Berlin, arr. Ginny Carr Goldberg) (3:24)
2. Fool for Yule (Ginny Carr Goldberg) (5:06)
3. Christmas Time is Here (Vince Guaraldi/Lee Mendelson, arr. Ginny Carr Goldberg) (4:08)
4. Winter Wonderland (Felix Bernard/Richard B. Smith, arr. Ginny Carr Goldberg) (3:30)
5. Whisper (Ginny Carr Goldberg) (3:32)
6. L’Amour Nous Entoure Ce Soir (Ginny Carr Goldberg) (5:18)
7. The Christmas Song (Mel Tormé/Robert Wells, arr. Ginny Carr Goldberg) (2:25)
8. Santa Dear, Where’s Mine? (Marilyn Shockey, arr. Ginny Carr Goldberg) (4:36)
9. St. Ita’s Vision (Samuel Barber, arr. Robert McBride) (2:37)
10. It Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas (Ginny Carr Goldberg) (4:29)
11. Silent Night (Traditional, arr. David Nokes) (3:58)

Running at just under 45 minutes, this festively luxurious album opens on the lush, finger-snapping harmonies of I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm and the joyous rhythms of the title track Fool for Yule which are followed seamlessly by the ornately sculptured balladry of Christmas Time is Here, their gorgeous rendition of the timeless Winter Wonderland, and both a vocally magical Whisper and the gentle French-imbibed hipsway of L’Amour Nous Entoure Ce Soir is brought forth.

Next up is the rather lovely Barber Shop Quartet-hued The Christmas Song and the solid fare of Santa Dear, Where’s Mine? which are in turn backed by the simply heavenly, operatically-imbibed St. Ita’s Vision, the album rounding out on the harmonious It Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas, closing out on a magnificent, soaringly acoustic Silent Night.

Official Purchase Link