For the past 80 years, the great American jazz, big band, swing, and blues musicians have offered endless creative interpretations of the classic holiday songs — taking a good thing and making it even better. But who exactly helped traditional Christmas songs evolve into foot-stomping tracks that fill the airwaves each December? It's time to delve into how jazz and blues artists transformed the holidays as we know it.

Join New York Adventure Club as we explore the great jazz and blue artists of the 20th century who turned traditional holiday tunes on their head, and how the practice of jazzing up the holiday season has continued until this very today.

Led by award-winning author Will Friedwald, who is widely considered one of the nation's most prolific music writers, our celebration of jazzy and bluesy holiday music will include:

A review of jazz-and-blues takes on happy holiday hits that span styles and generations, from New Orleans and dixieland to swing era big bands and bebop
A discussion of inspired re-arrangements of classical melodies appropriate to the season, such as Duke Ellington's brilliant treatment of Tchaikovsky's "Nutracker Suite"

A look at Christmas-inspired originals by great artists that later became classics, including The Modern Jazz Quartet's "A Winter Tale" and Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby"

The big-time sounds of big band holiday happenings, including "Siberian Sleighride" by the Eddie Sauter - Bill Finegan Orchestra, and "It Happened in Sun Valley" by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra

Contemporary jazz and blues artists who show how the holiday spirit can survive and thrive in the 21st century