While
Louis Armstrong
famously recorded several holiday classics, he surprisingly never released a full Christmas album. 2022's
Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule
amends this by compiling all of the legendary trumpeter/vocalist's best-known holiday tunes. Included are such favorites as his duet with
Ella Fitzgerald
on "I've Got My Love to Keep Warm," his 1953 take on "'Zat You, Santa Clause," and the swinging "Christmas Night in Harlem" with the
Benny Carter Orchestra
. We also get
Armstrong
's jovial original version of the
Steve Allen
title track and a rare 1971 home-recorded reading of the traditional poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas ('Twas the Night Before Christmas)," augmented here with nuanced and delicately rendered piano backing from
Sullivan Fortner
. ~ Matt Collar