“This is my incomplete Christmas album,” singer Bryan Andrew Wilson laughs. “It’s been in progress for years. I’d do a part of a song and leave it and come back to finish it 2 years later.” Aside from running a church, studying for a master’s degree, and working as an Atlanta educator, Wilson has been a caretaker to several relatives. “My mother, who set the standard for our family holidays, died of cancer. I took care of her those last few months. My former road manager died of COVID, and I took care of her funeral. My spiritual mother, Duranice Pace, died suddenly, and several other people died. It’s been a lot, and I wasn’t always in a Christmas spirit, but we finally finished some of the songs this year that we started years ago.” Wilson’s holiday album, Jingle Jams (Bryan’s Songs/ CE Music / The Orchard Distribution), is now available on all digital music platforms. Listening Link: https://orcd.co/jinglejams
Jingle Jams opens with the slow jam “The Best Gift.” Wilson wrote the song with producer Darryl Pearson, whose resumé includes productions with Missy Elliott, Mary J. Blige, Mya, Drake, and Sam Smith. The next track, “Jingle Bell Swing,” is a Chicago-styled stepper’s track produced by Judah Sealy, who has enjoyed No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Smooth Jazz charts. Next up is Wilson’s Motown cover of Smokey Robinson & the Miracles’ 1963 gem, “Christmas Everyday.”
On the second half of the album, Wilson takes the listener to a Pentecostal church. He opens this section with the quasi-classical song he co-wrote with Blake Wesley Pace, “Greatest Gift of All.” It features Wilson’s full-throated tenor against the majestic backing vocals of the Washington, D.C.-based group Roderick Giles & Grace (who backed Wilson on his 2016 Billboard No. 1 gospel hit, “Overflow”) and the celestial string orchestration of Yoed Nir (Judy Collins, Regina Spektor). Then, Wilson saunters over to New Orleans for “The Savior Has Come,” which features the Grammy® Award-winning Rebirth Brass Band (who have collaborated with the likes of Trombone Shorty, Jon Batiste, and Harry Connick Jr.) who bring a Bourbon Street marching band and a rickety church pew together for a festive celebration of the savior’s birth. On the bluesy “A Wonderful Child,” Wilson is joined by 90-year-old gospel music legend Dorothy Norwood and vocal dynamo Darrel Walls of the Grammy® Award nominated, The Walls Group) for a gutbucket rumination on the birth of Christ.
The album closes with the funky, percussive “He Brought Joy,” which Wilson says is a nod to the godfather of soul James Brown’s church roots. “I have five more songs that I didn’t want to rush, so we’ll finish those in the new year and reissue the whole thing as a complete album in 2025,” Wilson adds. “The songs that didn’t make it are cool songs, I think. I can’t wait to finish them and reintroduce this project next year.”
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Bryan’s entrance on the music scene when the then-ten-year-old sang a dynamic rendition of “His Eye is on the Sparrow” with the Mississippi Children’s Choir back in 1994 for Malaco Records. Wilson’s dramatic high notes and note-bending made the song and instant success that’s earned him millions of YouTube and TikTok views in the digital era. “That song seems to go viral every few months,” Wilson laughs. “It’s pretty amazing how that happens.”
- The Best Gift
- Jingle Bell Swing
- Christmas Every Day
- The Greatest Gift of All Ft. Roderick Giles & Grace
- The Savior Has Come Ft. Rebirth Brass Band
- A Wonderful Child ft. Dorothy Norwood & Darrel Walls
- He Brought Joy ft. The Wilsonettes
