Let's Have An Old Fashioned Christmas: E-Z Play Today

Nostalgic without being saccharine. Conley's take suggests a living room piano late on Christmas Eve, someone who knows the tune well enough to play it with genuine warmth rather than note-perfect precision. It's intimate and swinging at once.

Piano students comfortable with basic jazz language and intermediate players seeking accessible holiday material. This works equally well for casual performance settings or as a supplement to a Christmas concert when you need something with genuine jazz flavor but realistic technical demands.

• Keep the swing relaxed. The E-Z Play format suggests straightforward rhythm, but Christmas jazz lives in the space between the beat, not on top of it.
• Let rubato breathe in the melody line. These two pages give you room to lay back or press forward without losing clarity.
• Balance the left hand lightly. Your comping should sit under the tune, not compete with it.

Slot this into a holiday set where you want to shift tone from traditional arrangements. Two pages means it fits perfectly as a solo piano interlude or a bridge between larger ensemble pieces. The jazz sensibility also makes it a natural partner for other standards arranged in a contemporary style.

• Basic jazz comping and left-hand voicing
• Playing with swing articulation
• Reading chord symbols over a melody line
• Balancing accompaniment with melodic prominence