It’s That Time When Happiness Is Mandatory Because Dave Palmer Trio Give Happy Holidays

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It’s That Time When Happiness Is Mandatory Because Dave Palmer Trio Give Happy Holidays

18/11/2025

Dave Palmer Trio
Joy To The World (Featuring Chris Pierce)
United States

The jazz and swing universe just got a little more festive. The supergroup of veteran talents that comprise the Dave Palmer Trio have released a Christmas album. It’s nearly Thanksgiving, and for our friends in the United States, that’s generally the sign to start humming carols. For us in Britain, it happens a little earlier (unfortunately for some) after Guy Fawkes Night on the 5th of November. Happy Holidays contains 8 well-known Christmas songs, reinvented to show off the technical wizardry of pianist Dave Palmer, bassist Reggie Hamilton, and drummer Joey Waronker. Dave Palmer has been continuously working on not only his own compositions and reworkings, but he’s also provided his skills for bands like Air and Fleetwood Mac. Reggie Hamilton has played bass for head-turners like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, and Joey Waronker has performed for plenty of famous faces including R.E.M. and Roger Waters. He’s just come off the road with Oasis on the Reunion 25 tour. With a definite air of festive nostalgia and a loving gaze onward to the big day, here is Joy To The World. Bring it on.

The music opens with an upbeat swing beat that makes you want to sit up. It’s not aggressive, there’s no big band sound with oomph-pah, it’s gentle and steady. A delightful voice then begins the words; a piano creates a sea of melodious choppy waters to sail over. As the track progresses, and the words deliver their quiet message of hope, the trio elevate their repertoire to jam and fill in for the spaces left by tradition. New jazz elements playfully jive in between the lines, all in key, so we not only get the familiar, we get the brand new too. That’s what Christmas is all about.

You can follow Dave Palmer on Instagram

Joey Waronker

and Reggie Hamilton

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