I’d say that there’s no real introduction to today’s offering, Wynton Marsalis’s Twas The Night Before Christmas, but there’s actually a pretty damn long one that you can read over here.

If you haven’t read the above linked-to post on the real War on Christmas, I encourage you to do so. And if you have, I hope that you’ll find this recording to be the perfect pairing to that essay, as I do.

In this recording, the Clement Clarke Moore poem, read by Marsalis, is spoken throughout.  But the instrumentation is nothing short of brilliant, as various parts of his septet convey in music what your mind is already picturing. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever come across a holiday music recording where the piece’s arrangement itself tells a story the way it does here.

It is my favorite Christmas recording of all time, bar none. If you have never heard it, know that I offer you this treat with glee.

Enjoy.