The inaugural presentation of the Mitchell Kezin Award For Outstanding Achievement In Christmas Music for 2025 goes to…
Non other than Mr. Mitchell Kezin himself!!
The following is an excerpt from the May 17, 2013, New York Times:
“Mitchell Kezin grew up to become an avid collector of Christmas music who has bestowed on his friends custom-made recordings for the last 25 years. But he took that devotion one step further, producing a documentary called “Jingle Bell Rocks!” that tells the stories behind 12 offbeat holiday classics. The documentary includes songs like Miles Davis and Bob Dorough’s “Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern) and Clarence Carter’s “Back Door Santa”.
Kezin started his Christmas music tradition while in art school, when he found himself one winter break with no money for gifts, but with access to a recording studio. Starting with a kitschy Hawaiian song, he added some of the usual suspects and cranked out 50 tapes for friends. He got more into it, ultimately getting in touch with a loose-knit fraternity of like-minded collectors. An article about those collectors in a newsletter made him realize they would be good subjects for a documentary.
One of those collectors was Bill Adler, the former record company executive who gave Run-DMC the idea for “Christmas In Hollis.” Adler took him to meet Joseph Simmons, who was the Run in Run-DMC. While in town last December, Mr. Kezin asked Mr. Adler where would be a good place for some different holiday music. Next thing you know, they were at Charlie’s Calypso City, an outpost of West Indian culture in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where Rawlston Charles, the sharp-dressed proprietor, and some friends were hanging out.
Mr. Kezin mentioned the old Nat King Cole tune. One of Charlie’s friends started singing the song.
“Mitchell’s head just about exploded!” Mr. Adler said. “He couldn’t believe they knew the song. He had the idea to record a version of that song for the film. Then Charlie said, ‘I know Sparrow.’”
That would be the Calypso King of the World, Slinger Francisco, a k a Birdie, a k a the Mighty Sparrow
Around the same time, Sparrow was driving with a friend in Brooklyn, where he was talking about an old Nat King Cole holiday song about a little boy. He started singing it in the car. Not long afterward, Sparrow got a call from Charlie.
“He knew I liked that song, and he was calling to see if I wanted to sing it for this movie,” Sparrow recalled with a smile. “This was written in the stars!”
On a rainy day last month, inside a windowless recording studio above Calypso City, Sparrow cut his part. Dapper in a brown suit and red turtleneck, he joked with friends while Mr. Kezin and his camera crew prepared to film him. Mr. Kezin had draped Christmas lights in the studio, and placed a Santa doll in the control room.
“Birdie, you ready?” asked the sound engineer.
“One, two, tree,” Sparrow replied, pulling his stool closer to the microphone.
He started to sing, his voice deep, rich and resonant, even at 77 years of age. Mr. Kezin, wedged into a corner of the studio, looked pensive. During the spoken part, Sparrow improvised.
“He’s the little boy that Santa Claus completely forgot,” Sparrow recited.
In the control room, Mr. Adler slapped his hand over his heart and dramatically staggered back against the wall. Mr. Kezin smiled.
“I’m so sorry for that laddie,” Sparrow resumed singing. “He hasn’t got a daddy. The little boy that Santa Claus forgot.”
Despite the lyrics, the sound was joyous — a calypso swirl of steel drums, horns and jangling triangles. It would become the upbeat finale of Mr. Kezin’s documentary, and his own holiday story.
“It was a redemptive moment for me,” he said a few days after the session with Sparrow. “I took a song I was haunted by and turned it around. I made my own happier version. And it came out of the blue.”
Click below to listen to our 2024 Mitchell Kezin Christmas Special: