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:: Track list & details
"Close your eyes, and fantasize/'Cause Booty Claus has just arrived"
Traditional holiday music and The Funk might seem like the most disparate musical genres imaginable. But, point in fact, Jimmy McGriff, Ramsey Lewis, Clarence Carter, Booker T & the MGs, Brook Benton (just to name a few faves) have brought serious bounce to the yuletide ounce. And Bootsy himself has been involved with some of the funkiest Christmas music ever made, namely James Brown's 1970 album Hey America, when he was a member of the original JB's. So a Christmas album from the master of the space bass arrives like a big red-ribboned box begging to be unwrapped.
Still, depending on motivations and inspirations, a holiday disc can be risky business. If Collins had merely "borrowed" the arrangements and compositions of the above names, he could've assembled a set that would've undoubtedly brought smiles from critics and fans alike. Instead, Bootsy's approach, it seems, was to assemble every name artist available—including longtime JB/P-Funk collaborator Fred Wesley, Bernie Worrell, Bobby Byrd, Ohio Players' Sugarfoot, Zapp Troutman, Charlie Daniels(!) and Collins' brother Catfish for re-interpretations of classics like "Merry Christmas Baby," "Jingle Bells," "Winter Wonderland," Donnie Hathaway's "This Christmas," etcetera. Most of them come off as well-worn and uninspired as you might imagine. Even Snoop Dogg (whose own "Santa Claus Goes Straight To the Ghetto" is one of the more recent entries into the funky Xmas rotation) fails to enliven the original "Happy Holidaze." And Collins himself gets in the way of Wesley's fine trombone work on "Silent Night."
The songs are studded by phone machine messages from George Clinton, legendary pimp Bishop Don Magic Juan, guitarist Buckethead, and others, in an apparent attempt to increase the name-value quotient.
Still, there are some suprising gems. Lifelong James Brown MC Danny Ray gets possibly his longest recording time ever on fun opener "N-Yo_City." Fellow P-funkateers Belita Woods, Garry Shider, Ron Kat, Blackbyrd McKnight, Mike Hampton, Razor Johnson, and Kash Waddy manage to rouse some spirits out of "Winter Wonderland," as do Tyreka and Tyesha Grissom, backing Bootsy on the more true-to-form "Boot-Off (the funky reindeer)." A new version of "I'd Rather Be With You," dedicated to the late Roger Troutman, is affecting and nicely done. And the title track, co-written by Collins, Worrell, Wesley and singer Adrian Hall, and featuring Bobby Womack, is the strongest cut of all. Coming at the album's end, it provides a nice coda for the diehard listener, but almost certainly will go unheard by most.
Collins' career has been studded with collaborations that have brought commercial and creative successes, and there's no doubt that the multi-talent has more in him. But like many maturing artists, he needs to put his ear a little closer to the (under)ground.
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