Christmas Cocktail Jazz LP

This one keeps its foot off the gas: cocktail-lounge arrangements of holiday standards from the Jeff Steinberg Jazz Ensemble, the Lori Mechem Quartet, and trumpeter Leif Shires, built for a room that's dimmed the lights rather than one that's dancing. Green Hill Productions has built its whole catalog on exactly this register, relaxed, mood-setting instrumental jazz. Here it tips toward the shaken-not-stirred, after-dark end of the season instead of big-band swing or choral standards.