Spiked Eggnog – A Little Xtra Xmas

Spiked Eggnog is Jazz Forever’s second Christmas CD (which is why we gave it the subtitle “A Little Xtra Xmas“). At the end of 2014 Jazz Forever has recorded a total of five CDs, a very impressive discography for a band that is only two years old.

Featuring

  • Eddie Lewis – Trumpet
  • George Chase – Trumpet
  • Thomas Hulten – Trombone
  • Doug Wright – Alto Sax, Clarinet
  • Martin Langford – Tenor Sax, Flute, Clarinet
  • Gary Zugar – Bari Sax, Clarinet
  • Mike Owen – Guitar, Banjo
  • Gilbert Sideño – Piano
  • Thomas Helton – Bass

Ben Pokluda – Executive Producer
Mike Tristan – Engineer
Dr. Pearl Lewis – Cover Art

Spiked Eggnog was recorded, mixed and mastered at Wire Road Studios in 2014.

Available At:

In 2020, in the midst of the Coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent lockdowns, Jazz Forever “closed its doors” so to speak. The group no longer exists and the albums were removed from all online sources.

If you are interested in a physical copy of this CD, there are still some floating around. Contact me and maybe we can track one down for you.

New, Original Arrangements

Eddie Lewis not only plays trumpet in Jazz Forever, but he also directs the band and writes all of the arrangements. For Spiked Eggnog, Eddie took the liberty of writing fresh, new arrangements based on the 100+ tunes he had already arranged for the band over the previous two years. For most of the earlier arrangements, Eddie based his work on classic jazz recordings. His objective was to get as close to the original sound as possible, using the ten piece instrumentation of Jazz Forever. Sometimes the task was to expand a small group sound to our bigger instrumentation, other times the task was to reduce a full big band down to ten pieces.

But with Spiked Eggnog and the previous recording, Mardi Gras Legends, Mr. Lewis wrote mostly what we call “original arrangements.” You can read more about these arrangements on the Track Info page (coming soon).

Mr. Ben Pokluda

Jazz Forever is the brain child of Mr. Ben Pokluda. His idea was to assemble ten of Houston’s top jazz musicians, give them challenging music to perform and launch it in as professional of a manner as possible. The result is a band unlike any other in the industry.